Identity Resolution Daily

[Post from Infoglide] Vetting Sharks and Whales

“If you’re not in the casino industry, the title of this post may be meaningless, but for casino managers, “sharks” are the bad guys and “whales” are the good guys. Sharks are people who try to defraud the casino through illegal activities, while whales are the high rollers who are apt to win $20,000 one trip and lost $25,000 the next. If there’s any environment where you’d be motivated as a businessperson to know as much as you can about who you’re dealing with, it’s a casino.”

DATAWARE HOUSING: Business Intelligence and Identity Recognition—IBM’s Entity Analytics

“This article will define master data management (MDM) and explain how customer data integration (CDI) fits within MDM’s framework. Additionally, this article will provide an understanding of how MDM and CDI differ from entity analytics, outline their practical uses, and discuss how organizations can leverage their benefits.”

Workers’Comp Kit Blog: Failure to Pay Workers Compensation Premiums

“A New York asbestos  contractor failed to pay $1.6 Million in workers’ compensation premiums and will serve four years in prison. Upon his release he will be deported to his home country as he is an illegal immigrant… He repeatedly changed the name of his company.”

The TSA Blog: Secure Flight Q&A II

“Each one of these layers alone is capable of stopping a terrorist attack. In combination their security value is multiplied, creating a much stronger, formidable system. A terrorist who has to overcome multiple security layers in order to carry out an attack is more likely to be pre-empted, deterred, or to fail during the attempt.”

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By Robert Barker, Infoglide Senior VP & Chief Marketing Officer

If you’re not in the casino industry, the title of this post may be meaningless, but for casino managers, “sharks” are the bad guys and “whales” are the good guys. Sharks are people who try to defraud the casino through illegal activities, while whales are the high rollers who are apt to win $20,000 one trip and lost $25,000 the next. If there’s any environment where you’d be motivated as a businessperson to know as much as you can about who you’re dealing with, it’s a casino.

What can an ideal identity resolution system do for a casino manager? From the moment of check-in, the system identifies the whales and sharks. Unbeknownst to the hospitality clerk, the attributes of the person checking in are compared real time against computerized lists of bad guys and good guys. The shark lists include known card counters, chip stealers, and other types of troublesome guests and fraudsters.

When a match is found as the suspected fraudster checks in, a text alert is sent immediately to a security room. Then a plainclothes hotel security staffer quietly pulls the person of interest aside, confirms who they are, and informs them that they aren’t welcome and should leave immediately. The identity resolution system also monitors other points of interaction (e.g., credit cards) in the casino.

Whales are similarly detected at entry points into the casino, but once detected, they get the “red carpet” treatment instead of a red flag. Alerts are sent to the appropriate people, including those running the whale’s favorite tables.

The identity resolution system also detects the whale’s friends and relatives to ensure that they are likewise handled with care. Without the system in place, unfortunate incidents can happen. For example, a whale’s wife or girlfriend may be refused some request because the server doesn’t realize who she’s related to. It’s not good business to let even one incident like that happen!

Implementing an identity resolution system can help any enterprise get a better handle on its business. Consultant and blogger Jim George documented what he calls “the 6 R’s” about knowing who’s whom in a casino environment:

• Resolve –  Is Jane Smith also Jane Brown and/or Jane Brown-Smythe?
• Research – What is known about her? Is she a known criminal? Card counter?
• Relate – Who is she related to and how? Is she Gotti’s limo driver or the wife of a wealthy high rolling CEO?
• Recognize – At the check-in counter, out on the casino floor, over the phone, on the Internet site, at the cage, etc.
• Respond – All the above is wasted without the capability to differentiate the appropriate response by the casino.
• Recover – If all else fails, do we have all of the information to make a recovery or support an arrest?

If you’re investigating identity resolution, you’re in the right place. That’s all we talk about here.

If you have a comment, we want to hear it; if you have a question, our readers will try to help.

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ars technica: TSA answers our question, changes policy after blog comments

“When the TSA launched its Evolution of Security blog last month in an effort to engage in open communication with travelers, my colleague Jon Stokes expressed skepticism and characterized as laughable the prospect of TSA acting on feedback from the public. Having written about the ineptitude of TSA in the past myself, I was emphatically inclined to agree with Jon. It looks like we might have passed judgment prematurely, because it only took TSA one week to start making broad policy changes in response to feedback received through the blog.”

Roseville & Rocklin Today: Organized Retail Crime Ring Busted

“Dave Kemp spotted suspicious activity by a shopper within the Longs store on Stanford Ranch Road in Rocklin and obtained the license plate number of the car that the shopper and two others left in. He suspected that the shoppers were involved in ORC based upon the methods of filling shopping carts; specifically, the type of products being taken and the method of hiding the products in the shopping cart.”

cnet: How will Real ID affect you?

“The Real ID law is touted by Homeland Security officials as an anticrime and antiterror measure, but is steadfastly opposed by some state governments on privacy and sovereignty grounds. Computer scientists also have raised concerns about how its creation of a national interlinked database would work in practice. . . . Real ID will require states to share detailed information about anyone with a state ID card or driver’s license, perhaps through a network called AAMVAnet, which the Department of Transportation is paying to expand in hopes of supporting the massive amount of data that will be exchanged. Databases owned by Social Security and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services will also be integrated.”

casino.co.uk: Is Casino Fraud Increasing?

“There has been a flurry of police investigations and arrests on the subject of Casino fraud, although surprisingly it has been a number of casino employees whom have been arrested. So is Casino fraud on the increase or is this just a spate of fraud cases hitting the media?”

b-eye.com - Business Intelligence Network: What is Master Data?

“The enormous interest in master data management (MDM) that has appeared in the past couple of years has not yet generated a great deal of methodological progress. Hopefully, as data professionals, consultants, and vendors grapple with the complex issues involved, the situation will improve. A central problem, however, is that there is little agreement about what master data is.”

[Note: Look for our upcoming blog post on Identity Resolution vs. Master Data Management, a part of our series on Mistaken Identity Resolution.]

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