BATON ROUGE, La. — AppOne, a part of Wolters Kluwer Financial Services, is helping automotive dealers and lenders address Identity Theft Red Flags and Notices of Address Discrepancy using its Internet-based financial risk mitigation technology.

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) established the Red Flag Rules recently to help combat the nation’s fastest growing white collar crime — identity theft. Identity thieves can use stolen personal information to obtain fraudulent credit lines and buy or finance vehicles through indirect or direct lending channels. This means the automotive finance community has to be extremely vigilant when it comes to detecting credit fraud. The Red Flag Rules are aimed at helping dealerships and lenders detect identity theft by requiring that both establish prevention programs.

While dealers and lenders have until Nov. 1, 2008 to implement observable and measurable programs, it can be difficult and time-consuming to make sure an organization is meeting Red Flag requirements. This is particularly true for smaller lending institutions and independent auto dealerships that have limited technological and staffing resources. AppOne helps simplify many aspects of Red Flag Rule compliance by employing a number of warranted identity theft prevention processes, including:

IDOne — A proprietary alerting system that automates the process of fraud alerts, addresses discrepancies and also includes proprietary alert rules that look for patterns for possible fraud and identity theft

AuditOne — An AppOne process that reconciles all finance-related documents, including identity documents with information provided on customer credit applications

InterviewOne — A preventative measure used to verify both the identity of the buyer and the type of vehicle that the customer has purchased

“When it comes to the new Red Flag Rules, lenders and dealers can face steep penalties — in some cases, thousands of dollars per violation — for non-compliance,” said Lee Domingue, CEO of AppOne. “AppOne helps address Red Flag Rules before the loan documentation is sent to the lender, which simplifies the compliance process for both the lender and the dealer.” Domingue also added that dealers benefit from selecting a strong industry partner whose policies fit with their established identity theft programs.

Auto dealers are invited to learn more about implementing an identity theft program at their dealership through Wolters Kluwer Financial Services’ educational webinar, “Implementing the Identify Theft Red Flag Guidelines.” For schedule and registration information, please visit www.WoltersKluwerFS.com.