The digital economy delivers many benefits to societies and businesses, but it also spawns a technologically sophisticated class of criminals who exploit its weaknesses to commit fraud and other crimes.
These techno-criminals transform the fraud and risk mitigation practices of financial institutions, corporations, and law enforcement into a complex game of digital whack-a-mole. Identity theft, money laundering, fake identities, account takeovers, phishing scams, crypto schemes, ransomware, and other types of fraud are becoming more common. These crimes are a big threat to businesses, institutions, and individuals everywhere.
An advanced class of criminals
These fraudulent crimes share one common tactic — perpetrators use false information and digital misdirection to fool their victims and evade detection. The complexity and sophistication of these crimes may vary, but in recent years, it has become clear that traditional fraud-detection systems and data sources are no longer enough to detect and deter criminal behavior in the digital world.
The core problem is that online criminals understand the methods financial institutions and law enforcement typically use to identify fraud, money laundering, and other illegal activities. Exploiting this knowledge, online criminals have developed the technical skills to create a vast digital smoke screen.
Clearing the smoke
Criminals avoid detection by hiding their activities with encryption, AI deepfakes, false identities, fake websites and social media feeds, the dark web, cryptocurrencies, and other diversionary measures. As a result, anyone using free search tools like Google or Bing to check a fake business may find information that looks legitimate but isn’t. Even worse, finding this information, an investigator might mistakenly believe they have done their due diligence when a clever criminal has deceived them.
The weakness for criminals is that their evasion methods only provide a surface-level illusion of credibility. Dig a few layers deeper — into public court records, police reports, business licensing data, SEC filings, credit reports, motor vehicle records, utility bills, real estate data, sanctions lists, and more — and the smoke starts to clear.
Even the most dedicated criminals leave some sort of digital trail, and not every data source can be manipulated or hidden. To find these lies, you need a search tool that can search the deepest parts of public data. This is where criminal activity is much harder to hide.
Thomson Reuters CLEAR: The search tool investigators know they can trust
Many modern risk management and fraud prevention teams use Thomson Reuters CLEAR because they need to search more deeply into public information.
CLEAR is specifically designed to access and search all kinds of public records, unlike popular public search engines or other tools. CLEAR helps business, financial, and legal investigators find hard-to-find information on businesses and people. It uses special databases that have been created over many years of research. This information also includes criminal records and signs of suspicious activity.
Using CLEAR, companies can confidently verify the legitimacy of new vendors. Financial institutions can ensure that their know-your-customer (KYC) protocols offer the best possible protection against undue risk. Law enforcement also has a much better chance of locating individuals trying to avoid legal accountability.
CLEAR effectively searches public records, analyzes the data, organizes the results, and presents the findings on a customized, easy-to-read dashboard. The dashboard includes at-a-glance risk flags, as well as a generative AI (GenAI)-powered Risk Analysis Summary (RAS) that verbally summarizes the key elements of any given search. For investigators, the result is a fast, thorough search they know they can trust.
The power of public records
There are several reasons why CLEAR focuses on public records.
First, public records are legal sources of valuable information. Most government agencies are required to publish data related to their official activities. This includes information on business transactions and beneficial ownership, property records, zoning codes, business addresses, and death records. It also includes records about bankruptcies, liens, and judgments. Court documents and criminal records are also publicly accessible, along with some data from credit bureaus.
Data privacy laws block access to certain personal information, like sealed court records and private financial data. However, a vast amount of information is available online for those who have the time, skill, tools, and persistence to access it.
While people won’t go to the trouble of locating hard-to-find information, companies, law firms, and financial institutions operating in competitive environments can use public records to gain a valuable strategic advantage.
More information, better protection
Public records, when used responsibly and legally, provide information that can help financial institutions protect against money laundering and high-risk clients. Companies that conduct thorough due diligence on new suppliers can find public records warning them against certain suppliers and guiding them to more reliable and cost-effective business partners. Law enforcement, too, can save money and time by using the power of public records to identify and locate wrongdoers.
However, finding valuable insights into public data can be challenging. The main barrier is that many people, including experienced investigators, don’t know where or how to search. Manually searching for this information is time-consuming, and there’s no guarantee that important details aren’t missing. Each database is unique, and the way information is organized affects how easily it can be found.
Cutting through the clutter
CLEAR solves problems by decluttering and locating needed information based on the search parameters and risk tolerance set up by the user. CLEAR can also predict results from incomplete information, like missing addresses or unclear ownership details, to find likely connections between data in different databases. These features make CLEAR searches more reliable and complete. This reliability gives risk management and fraud prevention teams confidence that their investigations are thorough.
Risk and fraud: Challenges and solutions
In the real world, there are numerous regulatory requirements, security protocols, and other challenging scenarios that can be addressed with a thorough CLEAR search. Here are a few:
Synthetic and stolen identities
The challenge. Banks and other financial institutions often struggle to distinguish real customers from those using synthetic or stolen identities. Fraudsters are experts at stealing private information and inventing fake content to create the illusion of a real person or business. Furthermore, new digital tools like GenAI make this kind of deception easier than ever.
The risk. Institutions that fail to adequately protect themselves against identity fraud risk experiencing financial losses and damaging customer confidence and trust.
How CLEAR can help. Fake identities tend to have a surface-level credibility that crumbles under scrutiny. For example, real people tend to have a diverse history of personal and financial activity such as mortgages, property sales, marriage licenses, auto purchases, business licenses, parking tickets, and more. Luckily, fake or synthetic identities can’t duplicate that information. Once CLEAR indicates a synthetic identity, it immediately flags it to the user.
Compliance burdens and regulatory scrutiny
The challenge. Financial institutions must follow the Bank Secrecy Act (BSA) by verifying the identities of customers opening accounts through KYC protocols. They also need to file suspicious activity reports (SARs) whenever a transaction appears to be illegal.
The risk. Failure to meet the BSA requirements can result in fines, reputational harm to the institution, and significant financial losses.
How CLEAR can help. KYC officers can use CLEAR to check all basic information provided by a new customer, including their name, address, phone number, business licenses, and other details. This information reveals if the applicant has a criminal record, outstanding liens or judgments, questionable business associations, or negative media coverage. Fast search results save time, ensure thorough due diligence, and prevent financial institutions from engaging in ill-advised business relationships.
Vendor due diligence
The challenge. Companies must verify the legitimacy of new vendors by assessing their financial health and reviewing information on key executives and personnel. Companies with complex international supply chains must also make sure no links in the chain involve forced labor, child workers, or human trafficking.
The risk. Potential risks can affect operations, finances, security, regulatory compliance, product quality, and reputation.
How CLEAR can help. A CLEAR search of public records can confirm the legitimacy of legal documents related to a business, such as business registration and licenses, permits, articles of incorporation, and partnership agreements. It provides deep insights into a vendor’s business history, ownership information, and professional affiliations. This process ensures compliance, protects the integrity of the supply chain, and minimizes the risks associated with an unknown supplier.
Continuous monitoring
The challenge. Financial institutions sometimes engage in business relationships with entities that have a relatively high-risk assessment. They must continuously monitor these relationships to prevent fraud, detect suspicious financial activity, ensure regulatory compliance, and alert the lender if anything unusual threatens the business.
The risk. Without continuous, up-to-date information on high-risk customers, institutions become vulnerable to unanticipated and potentially costly oversights.
How CLEAR can help. CLEAR’s risk assessment dashboard sends automated alerts to flag significant changes in public records for monitored subjects. This early detection helps institutions respond proactively to risks and mitigate potential threats.
Case study: Northwest Bank
One organization that has transformed its risk-management practices with CLEAR is Northwest Bank, a small bank with five branches headquartered in Boise, Idaho.
Northwest Bank only has three people on its risk management team, and they conduct up to eight comprehensive investigations per month.
Before using CLEAR, investigators could spend weeks conducting enhanced due diligence on a single case. Searching public records for sanctions violations, beneficial ownership information, or suspicious financial activity was time-consuming. Additionally, collecting web search results to support the review process added to the burden. The bank's methods didn't let them watch for high-risk customers. This made it hard for the team to stay up-to-date on possible risks and new weaknesses.
Improved efficiency, accuracy, and thoroughness
Using CLEAR, the Northwest team now gathers information in minutes that previously took days or weeks. They can continuously monitor high-risk clients because the CLEAR dashboard automatically alerts them to significant changes in public databases. The new changes can include new addresses, phone numbers, court filings, judgments, incarcerations, and more.
In addition to saving time, CLEAR can also improve the accuracy and thoroughness of Northwest’s investigations. This lets the risk-management team focus on some types of work that must be done manually, like complex transactions that need a lot of financial research.
Less time spent on due diligence means the team can devote more time elsewhere and keep up with its workload, improving the overall efficiency and effectiveness of the team’s collective efforts.
Public records: An overlooked strategic asset
CLEAR is the best tool for searching and monitoring public records. However, public records are more than just a useful source of information about risk management and compliance. When used strategically, they provide organizations with up-to-date data that supports better decision-making and boosts leadership confidence in responding to the latest intelligence.
In this situation, public records help organizations grow. They give them more benefits the longer and more often they use the data.
Improved compliance leads to fewer penalties, a reduced risk of audits, and smoother pathways for future growth. Efficient and effective due diligence protects organizations from unnecessary disruptions and potentially costly penalties. In manufacturing, careful and ongoing research keeps supply chains safe. This improves product quality and reduces problems during the manufacturing process.
Forward-looking organizations recognize that public records are a treasure trove of actionable intelligence. They use timely information from public records to maintain their competitive advantage. In contrast, organizations that don’t monitor public records for strategic intelligence often make decisions based on incomplete or outdated information. In a highly competitive business landscape, the difference between winning and losing could depend on which organization has the best access to the most current data.
Turning risk into opportunity
Many organizations, despite the risk, still use free public search engines or inadequate commercial tools to gather vital information for risk assessments, due diligence, and other important matters. This information is supposed to protect the organization against malfeasance, avoid fines and penalties, ensure regulatory compliance, and help leaders understand the landscape of their industry or profession.
Unfortunately, most search engines only scratch the surface of information available on the internet through public databases. They may be fine for looking up recipes and random medical advice, but their algorithms aren't designed for deep dives into court dockets, property records, government databases, or other sources of hard-to-find information.
What are you missing?
Using popular search engines for these tasks wastes time and creates incomplete and unreliable results. People often miss crucial information because they search in the wrong places with the wrong tools. Overlooking something important can unintentionally expose the organization to criminal infiltration, compliance oversights, and other potential threats.
In these situations, ignorance is far from bliss. However, there are other options. Searching with Thomson Reuters CLEAR is a much better choice. It turns information into a valuable strategic advantage.
CLEAR: More than a search engine
CLEAR isn't just a search engine. It's a solution that is made to give financial institutions, companies, law enforcement, and other approved entities the data they need when they need it. CLEAR offers these organizations a multi-faceted toolkit to access complex public databases and extract vital, actionable, up-to-date information, protecting them from unnecessary harm.
Public databases hold immense potential. When accessed with the right tools, they become powerful forces for positive change and formidable weapons against criminals and fraudsters. Equip your organization with these essential tools by exploring CLEAR.
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