Proof Launches Defend, AI-Powered Active Detection Product To Prevent Fraud Losses In The Documents And Agreements Businesses Rely On

Proof is the only signature platform with AI-powered fraud detection to combat the $81B in annual losses to U.S. businesses due to false records and identity theft

BOSTON, May 14, 2024 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ -- Proof, the market leader for remote online notarization and identity-secured transactions, today launched Defend, an AI-powered fraud detection product built to combat the $81B in annual losses in the U.S. caused by falsified records, forged signatures, and identity theft.

Leading credit card networks secure more than $11 trillion worth of payments each year. Outside of these payments, however, trillions of dollars are exchanged via signatures, notarizations, agreements, invoices, wires, forms, and other methods that aren't secured the same way. When buyers swipe a credit card, active fraud prevention tools keep both the merchant and consumer safe from fraudulent activity or a stolen credit card. When someone signs a document or makes an authorization, there is little protection against impersonation or forgery. These transactions carry enormous economic value but also create billions of dollars in liability for businesses when documents are falsified.

With the launch of Defend, Proof brings trust and certainty to every agreement and customer interaction by actively detecting more than 100 risk signals to identify fraudulent activity at every stage of the transaction. When they use Defend, businesses receive a risk score for every transaction, highlighting specific fraudulent issues behind every authorization, signature, notarization, or identity verification. Defend is purpose-built to detect traditional forms of identity fraud as well as emerging methods like synthetic identities and deepfakes. Coupled with Proof Certificates, Defend allows businesses to trust that both the people and the documents involved in a Proof transaction are valid and secure.

Soon, businesses will be able to set custom fraud policies to manage specific risks, according to their business needs. With the ability to identify fraud in real-time, Defend allows customers to block or approve a transaction and also set policies that automate decisions. If potential fraudulent activity is detected, Proof will automatically step up identity verification to meet a company's unique business requirements for any transaction.

"We couldn't be more excited about this game-changing technology that Proof is bringing to its platform," said Aaron Davis, CEO of Florida Agency Network, the largest independent title agency in Florida. "Real estate fraud threatens the integrity of our industry. As a title agency, we sit on the front lines and we need tools like Defend to ensure that we can protect our customers' most precious assets with the documents we collect, get signed, and notarize at the closing."

Defend is powered by AI and able to identify attempted forgery across all types of transactions. When Defend learns of new behaviors and attacks, it can reduce the operational overhead of internal fraud teams by automatically remediating risks, reducing the cases that need to be manually reviewed and ultimately helping more customers securely sign with their identity. The platform leverages thousands of data attributes sourced from the Proof platform, credit networks, identity databases, public records, and other proprietary sources.

"The retirement industry is entrusted with trillions of dollars from working Americans, so our members are highly focused on combating fraud in all its forms," said Tim Rouse, the Executive Director of SPARK, the leading advocacy organization for the retirement plan industry. "We welcome technology firms like Proof providing our industry with creative, dynamic solutions so that we can stay ahead of emerging threats from bad actors."

Proof has executed more than $374B worth of real estate transactions and billions more across other industries, including financial services, retirement, wealth management, and commercial lending. This new product is primed to help address the massive financial fraud epidemic that is escalating every day.

"Electronic signatures have significantly increased convenience by eliminating paper. However, real estate transactions rely heavily on these digital documents and records, so it's crucial that the integrity of an electronic signature can be trusted and that it's verifiably not forged," said Paul Hurst, Chief Innovation Officer at First American. "Defend and the Proof platform will help the real estate industry combat the rising challenges of seller fraud, deed fraud, and impersonation."

Proof Defend was developed in collaboration with several Fortune 100 customers and is being used to secure transactions in the banking, retirement, auto, real estate, and business services industries. It is a paid feature that can be turned on instantly for the thousands of businesses on the Proof platform.

About Proof

Proof (formerly Notarize) is helping to secure the digital economy. As more critical commerce shifts from in-person to online, companies need to be able to trust who is behind every digital interaction. As a pioneer of remote online notarization, Proof has built the largest network of professional notaries. The Notarize Network has thousands of compliant and approved notaries. The average wait time for a notary is less than a second. Every year, millions of customers in all 50 states trust the Notarize Network to notarize important documents or to verify their identity. With industry-leading compliance and built-in fraud prevention tools, Proof secures trust at every customer touchpoint using a transaction platform that cryptographically binds verified legal identity to signatures, documents, and data. Proof is trusted by more than 7,000 organizations, from some of the largest brands in financial services to small businesses. Proof's platform serves a wide range of industries, from estate planning to property management, retirement, health care, construction, legal, credit unions, small business lending, and government. For more information, visit https://www.proof.com.

Media Contact

Lauren Hintz, Proof, 1 617-909-3295, [email protected], https://www.proof.com/

SOURCE Proof