USA: Retail Fraud Detection System A Hit With Sears

Sears, Roebuck and Co (NYSE:S) is extending its contract with HNC Software Inc, the company that supplies its retail fraud detection system. The Falcon(™) system, from HNC subsidiary HNC Financial Solutions, protects more than 60 million Sears credit accounts.Due to the significant reduction in fraud losses, the nation's largest retail card issuer renewed its agreement with HNC to protect its retail card portfolio, which includes the Sears Card and Sears Premier Card. "We have been pleased with the performance of our Falcon Retail system over the past three years, and we see value in continuing our relationship with HNC through this new long-term arrangement," said Bill Redmond, director of fraud and bankruptcy management for Sears Credit. As part of the agreement, Sears will implement an additional, credit card-specific Falcon model to protect its forthcoming co-branded MasterCard offering against fraud. Sears will also explore expanding its use of the Falcon system for fraud protection in its e-commerce operations. "We see our relationship with HNC resulting in continued refinements as we apply Falcon's proven fraud detection technology to these additional domains," added Redmond. Using retail-specific statistical models developed with HNC's proprietary neural network technology, Falcon Retail can determine the probability of fraud with each card transaction. When the probability of fraud reaches a critical threshold, Falcon Retail can either block the transaction at the point of sale or send the case to one of the retailer's fraud analysts for action.