Informatica White Paper Sample

Evidence of the growth of fraud, money laundering, and other criminal activity associated with identity data is pervasive. For example, according to a report of the U.S. President’s Identity Theft Task Force, identity theft (a fraud attempted or committed using identifying information of another person without authority) results in billions of dollars in losses each year to individuals and businesses. For the U.S. Internal Revenue Service (IRS), its most pressing problem is known as the “tax gap.”

This gap is the difference between what taxpayers owe every year and what they pay. Recent estimates suggest that the tax gap currently stands at an estimated $290 billion, with a significant proportion of this amount relating to fraudulent activity. It corresponds to a noncompliance rate of 16.3 percent and is pivotal in undermining confidence in the fairness of the tax system. Much of the $290 billion tax gap is associated with individuals deliberately masking their identities. The problem is also prevalent in the U.S. insurance industry. The Insurance Information Institute estimates that fraud accounts for 10 percent of the property/casualty insurance industry’s incurred losses and loss adjustment expenses, or about $30 billion a year. Different parties may commit fraud at different points in the insurance transaction: applicants for insurance, policyholders, third-party claimants, and professionals who provide services to claimants.

In the healthcare sector, the National Healthcare Anti-Fraud Association reports that fraud costs Americans more than $50 billion every year. Common types of fraud in this sector include altered billing of services, forged documents, and technology used illegally to collect billions of dollars from individuals and health insurers.