Fraud Network
How Certivant compares a new verification with verifications done at other companies — by kind of request only, never naming anyone — what it flags, and how your organization can tune it.
What it does
Fraud rarely stays in one place. A person who finances a phone at one company often tries the same at the next company, and the next, before the first one notices. The fraud network lets Certivant compare a person's new verification with verifications done at other companies, and tell your reviewer when the pattern looks risky.
Other companies are never named. A finding only says that one other company or several other companies received the same kind of request. It never shows dates, amounts or exact counts.
Every organization contributes to the network. Reading it is a plan feature (Fraud Network Check) and is billed per check.
A finding never rejects a verification on its own. It adds a review step, or a notice, so that a person decides.
What is compared
Every request carries a reason — why you are verifying the person (see Send a verification request). Sending one is optional: if none is sent, the form's default reason is used, else "New customer verification". That default carries no money at risk, so it does not feed the patterns below. A specific reason is recommended because it makes the fraud check useful. Certivant classifies it into a reason list of about 110 reasons, such as phone or device financing, phone purchase, mobile plan, SIM activation, personal loan, credit card, car loan, car rental, high-value electronics, crypto, money transfer, bank account, home rental, mortgage, notary / deed signing, insurance, utilities, employment, healthcare, travel or age verification.
Each reason belongs to a family:
- Phones & devices
- Mobile lines & SIM
- Loans & credit
- Vehicles
- High-value goods
- Money movement & crypto
- Account opening
- Home rental
- Property & mortgage
- Other (no money at risk)
- Unclear
Only the family reaches the network — never the text you typed, never the specific reason.
Only requests where money or credit is at risk count toward fraud patterns. A notary signing, a mortgage, insurance, utilities, employment or healthcare is recorded but never counts. For example, if someone signs a deed at a notary and finances a phone a month later, nothing is flagged.
Sensitive reasons are never shared. Health, legal, immigration, gambling, debt trouble, dating, religion or donations, death or estate, and age-restricted goods are stored as "Other".
Life events
Some life events legitimately cause many requests in a short time: a home purchase, a move, a new job, a wedding, buying a car, starting a business, travel, studies, a new baby or retirement. Certivant knows which reasons belong to the same life event. When reasons of the same life event happen close together, they explain each other, and the "many requests" patterns stay quiet.
Patterns
A pattern is a rule that decides when a finding is shown. These are built in. Certivant can add or change patterns without a software update, and each organization can tune them (see Your organization's settings).
| Pattern | Default | What it looks for |
|---|---|---|
| Phone / device stacking | On — review + live verification recommended | The same person bought or financed a phone or device at another company in the last 3 months (approved or escalated there). |
| High-value goods stacking | On — review | High-value goods at another company in the last 3 months. |
| Mobile line stacking | On — review | New lines or SIMs at 2 or more other companies in 30 days, unless a move explains it. |
| Loan stacking | On — review + live verification recommended | Credit approved at 2 or more other lenders in 30 days. Shopping around (requests that were not approved) does not count. |
| Many money-at-risk requests | On — review | Requests at 4 or more other companies in 30 days, unless a life event explains it. |
| Sudden burst | On — flag only | Requests at 3 or more other companies in 7 days, unless a life event explains it. |
| Same face, different identity / Same document, different face | On — review + live verification recommended | An identity contradiction. A name change after marriage with the same document and date of birth is treated as less serious. |
| Vehicle stacking, New SIM then money out, Many accounts / transfers, Quiet history then a burst, Recently rejected elsewhere, Many rental applications | Testing | Computed but not shown. Certivant switches them on once they are tested. |
How the other company's request weighs. It counts fully when it was approved, 0.4 when it was escalated, 0.2 when it was rejected and 0 while it is pending. Requests that were not approved and happened close together in one family count only once — someone shopping around for a loan is not someone stacking loans.
You can also tell Certivant what happened after the decision. If your system calls the outcome endpoint, a delivered purchase counts fully and a cancelled one not at all.
How a finding appears
When a pattern matches, the request detail page shows a Fraud network findings card. Each finding says what was seen — for example, "One other company received the same kind of request (Phones & devices) in the last month" — with a severity. Other companies are never named.
A pattern has one of four actions:
| Action | Effect |
|---|---|
| Info | Shown on the card only. |
| Flag | Shown on the card; the request is not sent to review because of it. |
| Manual review | The request goes to a reviewer. |
| Manual review + live verification recommended | The request goes to a reviewer, who is advised to run a live ID verification before deciding. |
A live verification is also recommended when 2 findings of review level or higher match (configurable). Nothing is ever rejected automatically.
Under the findings, the card asks "Was this really fraud?" — Yes or No. Your answers improve the patterns over time.
Correcting a reason
When you type the reason in the send dialog, a live hint tells you how Certivant reads it: the detected reason, "too vague", or "remove personal details".
On the request detail page, the reason is shown as typed and as classified (reason and family). If the classification is wrong, a reviewer can click Correct and pick the right reason. The correction:
- also corrects what this request contributed to the network, and
- is reused the next time the same reason text is sent.
Your organization's settings
Go to Settings → Fraud prevention → Fraud network rules. You need the Manage fraud rules permission. Certivant's team can also adjust them for your organization.
| Setting | What it does |
|---|---|
| On / Off / Default (per pattern) | Turns a pattern on or off, or follows the platform default. |
| Action | Info, Flag, Manual review, or Manual review + live verification recommended. |
| Window (days) | How far back other companies' requests are considered. |
| Minimum other companies | How many other companies must match before the pattern fires. |
| Advanced threshold | The minimum weighted events, for fine tuning. |
| Reject vague reasons | Strict mode. A reason such as "KYC" or "verification" is refused with a 422 error instead of being accepted with a warning. |
| Recommend live verification after N findings | How many review-level findings trigger the live verification recommendation. |
Leave a field empty to use the platform default.
Privacy
- Nothing identifies another company. Findings say "one other company" or "several other companies", with no names, dates or amounts.
- Only the family is shared — never the text you typed and never the specific reason. Sensitive reasons are stored as "Other".
- Network records are kept for 12 months, then deleted.
Related
- Returning customers — the comparison with your own earlier verifications.
- Fraud signals and face matching — the other review reasons.
- Review KYC and KYB requests — the detail page where the card appears.
Returning Customers
What Certivant does when you verify someone you already verified — it compares the new verification with the customer's file, tolerates a move, a renewed licence or a married name, and sends a real conflict to a person.
Blocklist and duplicate detection
Block faces, document numbers, phone numbers, email addresses, IP addresses and devices for your organization, and choose what happens when a different person reuses a phone number, email address, device or IP address.