To The Point Podcast Episode 7: How Fraud Prevention Hinges on Technology, with Mike Periera
On this week’s episode Mike Periera, Vice President of Lending Operations at MidAtlantic Finance Company, discusses how his organization has structured their fraud prevention strategy around technology and how Point Predictive products in particular have been paramount to their success.
The conversation also touches on how AI is shaping the future of fraud and how the financial sector must prepare for it.
Click below to listen to the full episode or read the full transcript.
Transcript
Intro
This is To the Point, a podcast from Point Predictive.
Jeff Goldberg
I am Jeff Goldberg here at the 2023 Auto Lending Fraud Roundtable presented by Point Predictive, joined now by Mike Pereira, who is VP of Lending Operations for Mid Atlantic Finance Company. Mike is based in Clearwater, Florida. Mike, thanks so much for joining us today. Let’s talk for a moment about what are you seeing Mike? In the auto loan fraud or auto fraud overall, the business that’s catching your attention right now? Also, keeping in mind you’re in a part of the country that is a hotbed for this sort of thing?
Mike Periera
Yeah. No, it’s, I will tell you, it’s never a dull moment. You know, fraud, just when you think, you’ve been able to kind of, you know, maintain it, it just, you know, it takes off on you again, you know, fraud continues to evolve. What we’re seeing is a lot of, I would say new found tricks that the fraudsters have come up with a lot of it really due to technology that’s out there, right now.
They tend to seem to have a way of staying in front. And then when you catch up to em, you know, they’re on to something else, or something bigger. So we continue to see just like everybody else’s pockets of fraud that just, with just new, new ideas and innovations that they’re coming up with all the time.
Jeff Goldberg
Does it seem like the kind of thing and you bring up this, you know, this saying, well, once we catch up to the criminals, they’re already on to the next thing? How do you get your arms around this, and in a way where you can feel like you have some hold on it and taking proactive, preemptive measures that are making a difference?
Mike Periera
Yeah, I think a lot of it is awareness and training, you know, you have to create awareness among your teams, you know, make sure that everybody is trained sufficiently, and just tries to be proactive when you spot something that’s unusual, rather than look the other way you address or are you investigate it. Because a lot of times, it’s probably something there that, you know, it’s kind of the old saying, “Where there’s where there’s smoke, there’s fire”, you know. So we just tried to do a really good job with making our teams aware of what to look for, and being proactive.
Jeff Goldberg
Take talking about that idea. You know, you have experience, you have expertise. You can sense when something’s out of the ordinary, but the criminals are getting so much better and leveraging technology in remarkable ways. So how do you sort of balance not only criminals being a step ahead, but having so many tools to work with these days?
Mike Periera
Well you use the tools that you have available to you, you know, obviously Point Predictive has been a very vital tool for us, the amount of resources that they have given us to be able to, to use at a drop of a dime is, has really been very essential to our success in minimizing fraud and reducing our losses that were incurred due to fraud. So you just try to use all the tools that you have, and stay on top of it’s constant fight, it just never ends.
Jeff Goldberg
And we’ve, you know, speaking with people today, obviously, Frank McKenna is an enormous resource when it comes to being, you know, incredibly wise on these issues and being a great resource, as is the rest of the team. Can you sort of describe the impact of your business before Point Predictive, and after in terms of being able to provide the support?
Mike Periera
Yeah, I would say, prior to being with Point Predictive, you know, we had, you know, we had, I would say, some protocols in place for fraud. But what we, you know, what we were missing was that, I would say that edge that was out there that we just didn’t really realize was out there. The key for us was when speaking with Point Predictive, it was really, I would say the thing that probably, swayed us the most was consortium data. And having access to consortium data, I always say it’s like having you’re actually looking at other folks applications without looking at the application. So consortium data for us was really valuable to see. And I’ll be honest with you, that was really a big part of why we decided to go with Point Predictive
Jeff Goldberg
And having access to different information, different insights. How do you put that into practice day to day for you?
Mike Periera
Yeah, I mean, you know, we built our processes around it, having other resources and spending a lot of time talking to the folks at Point and Frank, you know Frank so I like to call Frank the legend.
Jeff Goldberg
He is, if everybody calls somebody a legend, it’s probably because it’s true.
Mike Periera
Yeah, yeah. So so you know when you have resources such as that, and you build your processes around that, and you utilize the resources that are given to you. It’s a win. But you have to be on top of it, it’s a daily fight, you can’t just attack it monthly or quarterly. You have to be on top of it every day and just use the resources, make sure your folks are trained, and utilize the tools that are given to you.
Jeff Goldberg
You know, one thing during Frank’s presentation today, he talked about AI and of course, everywhere you look, that’s all anybody’s talking about his AI. What keeps you up at night, when you think about what’s coming down the pike in terms of fraud?
Mike Periera
Well, I think AI is, you know, the reality is, is AI is coming, you know, hold on tight, and I think there’s some good there. But it will present opportunities for fraudsters, I think we all know that. So, you know, I would say that’s always probably on most people’s minds is what is that going to produce, as it, you know, continues to grow. But, you know, it’s like anything else, you know, we always find a way to catch up to it at some point. And we feel like we’ve got really good partners that we work with, and, obviously, you know, Point being our biggest fraud partner. And we feel pretty comfortable that, you know, being with them, or being partner with them is going to help us, you know, be able to identify things really early because we can attack it.
Jeff Goldberg
Well use the word attack. And Frank, use that language today. Gotta fight fire with fire.
Mike Periera
Yep.
Jeff Goldberg
Yeah. Do you think this industry is ready for sort of what’s coming? And when you look at some of the resources like Point Predictive? Seems like this is how you have to approach it right? Eyes wide open?
Mike Periera
Yeah, I mean, I don’t know if the industry itself is 100%. ready yet. But guess what, you don’t have a choice, it’s comin’. So I think you better if you’re not, you know, preparing yourself, you better start doing it now. Because it’s coming. So that’s kind of how I look at it.
Jeff Goldberg
Anything else, Mike happening in the industry that really is catching your attention, or anything you heard today, from other people in the breakouts, or in the presentations, where it really resonates with you about what’s going on.
Mike Periera
Um, I mean, there were some things that came up today and some of the breakout sessions, which were really valuable. You know, it’s, I think, for me, it was hearing what others are experiencing and dealing with. Depending on your platforms, and depending on the type of business you do, and, you know, whether you’re dealing with, you know, franchise or independent dealers, or you’re in the subprime business or in prime business, the fraud dynamics are a little bit different, depending on platform. So it was kind of interesting to hear what others were experiencing, based on their platforms, but it was also kind of, you know, kind of a good thing to hear, you know, how they’re using the tools. Everybody’s using the tools differently. But really, which makes sense, because you want to you have to use these tools differently based on what you’re dealing with the kind of, you know, clientele or fraud or you’re dealing with. So that was really informative for me. And I think the breakout sessions did a good job in, in bringing that out. And I was really surprised by how passionate everybody was once they got into the session, so.
Jeff Goldberg
Well, that’s great. And it’s got to be that it’s, you know, like, like anything in life. It’s good to know, hey, I’m not fighting this fight on my own. Right, that yeah, we’re dealing with the same challenges and different challenges.
Mike Periera
Yeah, I had an opportunity to moderate you know, four sessions today. And I gotta tell you, that was invaluable to me. You know, so I was really thankful that I had the opportunity.
Jeff Goldberg
Any any nuggets, you’re bringing home with you that you heard you thought, “Oh, that’s a good one. I’m gonna, I’m gonna apply start applying that.”
Mike Periera
Yeah, I mean, there were some there’s bits and pieces of a lot of things that took a lot of notes today. And there’s bits and pieces of different practices and things that nothing specific that I could say right now, but, but I’ve seen little bits and pieces of things that I’m going to take back and kind of look at, and see if we can maybe fit that into our processes as well. And I think that’s what everybody did today was, you know, lean on each other to find different things that they could add to their processes. And that’s the whole purpose of this.
Jeff Goldberg
And are you hopeful about the future? How you feeling about things looking ahead,
Mike Periera
I’m always hopeful about the future. We’re fighters. I mean, you know, as Frank likes to say, fraud fighters, you know, we’re fighters, and I gotta tell you, you know, some of these folks think they’re, you know, smarter than others. But at the end of the day, you know, if you look in that room today that you’ve got some of the best fraud fighters in the business in that room. It’s a pretty cool feeling. And you could tell how passionate they are, how vigilant they are. And that’s kind of a really cool thing to actually see in you know, in work today.
Jeff Goldberg
Fighters, fighting the good fight.
Mike Periera
Yeah, fighting the good fight. That’s what it really is right.
Jeff Goldberg
Yeah, absolutely, absolutely. Well, Mike Pereira with Mid Atlantic Finance Company thank you so much for your time here at the 2023 Auto Lending Fraud Roundtable presented by Point Predictive Mike, thanks so much.
Mike Periera
Thank you. Thanks for having me.
Outro
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