2 July 2013

Social Media and capturing Fraud

There are pros and cons of using self-declared data from social media users and trying to understand where fraud might be happening. There are privacy concerns to be dealt with. In my discussions of small sample sizes, it would appear that more people are  amiable to data being used to catch fraud rather than marketing or collection and such other purposes. On the other hand unstructured data from social media can often help understand the true “identity” – which is the best indicator of potential fraudulent behavior in a non-face-to-face transaction. Danielle Kucera has pointed here to some interesting possibilities….

Bloomberg article

 

Businessweek Social MEdia Article

29 June 2013

Best laid plans of mice and men…

What was going to be a rather unique solution to a logistics problem – drop the rental car at the city location and then run back home – turned out rather horribly. Was not paying attention while driving. As a result, took a wrong turn while running back and by the time I realized it, it was too late. Instead of a five mile run on gentle slopes, it was nearly double the distance over three hills 🙁 In full sunlight, 88 degrees and a humidity that can put Kolkata during monsoons to shame!! Had to take not one, not two but three breaks 🙁