§ 50.04 DETECTING RED FLAGS.

   (A)   The town adopts the following red flags to detect potential fraud.

   (B)   These are not intended to be all-inclusive and other suspicious activity may be investigated as necessary:

      (1)   Alerts, notifications and warnings from a credit reporting company:

         (a)   Fraud or active duty alerts included with consumer reports;

         (b)   Notice of credit freeze provided by consumer reporting agency;

         (c)   Notice of address discrepancy provided by consumer reporting agency; and

         (d)   Inconsistent activity patterns indicated by consumer report such as:

            1.   Recent and significant increase in volume of inquiries;

            2.   Unusual number of recent credit applications;

            3.   A material change in use of credit; and

            4.   Accounts closed for cause or abuse.

      (2)   Suspicious documents:

         (a)   Identification documents that appear to be altered;

         (b)   Photo and physical description that do not match appearance of applicant;

         (c)   Other information that is inconsistent with information provided by applicant;

         (d)   Other information provided by applicant that is inconsistent with information on file; and

         (e)   The application appears to be altered or destroyed and reassembled.

      (3)   Suspicious personal identifying information:

         (a)   Personal information provided by applicant that does not match other sources of information (e.g., credit reports, Social Security number not issued or listed as deceased);

         (b)   Lack of correlation between the Social Security number range and date of birth;

         (c)   Information provided is associated with known fraudulent activity (e.g., address or phone number provided is same as that of a fraudulent application);

         (d)   Information commonly associated with fraudulent activity is provided by applicant (e.g., address that is a mail drop or prison, non-working phone number or phone number associated with answering service/pager);

         (e)   Social Security number, address or telephone number is the same as that of other customer at utility.

      (4)   Customer fails to provide all information requested;

      (5)   Personal information provided is inconsistent with information on file for a customer;

      (6)   Applicant cannot provide information requested beyond what could commonly be found in a purse, wallet or credit report (e.g., a person who cannot answer a challenge question); and

      (7)   Identity theft is reported or discovered.

(Ord. 2012-08, passed 12-17-2012)