(A) Detection. The city utilities adopts the following red flags to detect potential fraud. These are not intended to be all-inclusive and other suspicious activity may be investigated as necessary:
(1) Fraud or active duty alerts included with consumer reports.
(2) Notice of credit freeze provided by consumer reporting agency.
(3) Notice of address discrepancy provided by consumer reporting agency.
(4) Inconsistent activity patterns indicated by consumer report such as:
(a) Recent and significant increase in volume of inquiries;
(b) Unusual number of recent credit applications;
(c) A material change in use of credit;
(d) Accounts closed for cause or abuse.
(5) Identification documents appear to be altered.
(6) Photo and physical description do not match appearance of applicant.
(7) Other information is inconsistent with information provided by applicant.
(8) Other information provided by applicant is inconsistent with information on file.
(9) Application appears altered or destroyed and reassembled.
(10) Personal information provided by applicant does not match other sources of information (for example, credit reports, social security number not issued or listed as deceased).
(11) Lack of correlation between the social security number range and date of birth.
(12) Information provided is associated with known fraudulent activity (for example, address or phone number provided is same as that of a fraudulent application).
(13) Information commonly associated with fraudulent activity is provided by applicant (for example, address that is a mail drop or prison, non-working phone number or associated with answering service/pager).
(14) Social security number, address, or telephone number is the same as that of other customer at utility.
(15) Customer fails to provide all information requested.
(16) Personal information provided is inconsistent with information on file for a customer.
(17) Applicant cannot provide information requested beyond what could commonly be found in a purse or wallet.
(18) Identity theft is reported or discovered.
(B) Response. Any employee that may suspect fraud or detect a red flag will implement the following response as applicable. All detections or suspicious red flags shall be reported to the senior management official.
(1) Ask applicant for additional documentation.
(2) Notify internal manager; any utility employee who becomes aware of a suspected or actual fraudulent use of a customer or potential customer’s identity must notify the Utilities Director.
(3) Notify law enforcement; the utility will notify the Police Department at (812) 275-3311 of any attempted or actual identity theft.
(4) Do not open the account.
(5) Close the account.
(6) Do not attempt to collect against the account but notify authorities.
(Ord. 8-2009, passed 4-14-09)