It sniffs out fraud to protect customers in the middle of the night. It’s smart. It’s cunning. And it has a sharp nose for fraud.

It’s called “The Rat” and it is the brainchild of Lloyds Banking Investigators who wanted to implement technology to help protect Lloyds customers. The solution uses advanced behavioral analysis to look for unusual signs and patterns when people log-in to the online banking portal which do not match their typical patterns.

The solution has helped stop more than 2,000 customers from losing their cash so far.

It Operates 24/7

Since fraudsters never sleep, the solution is constantly scanning banking login’s including in the middle of the night. If The Rat spots an unusual pattern serious enough, the solution will freeze the customers account until a fraud analyst can have a conversation with the customer to make sure they are not a victim of a scam.

According to PA Media which originally published information on the anti-scammer technology, the solution identifies criminals in multiple ways:

• It measures the time it takes for someone to enter personal details in their online banking does not fit with a particular customer’s usual behavior.
• It analyzes patterns of the login and what happens after the login to determine if a fraudster has had access to the account. For example, many times fraudsters will follow a routine of changing account details immediately after login which do not match customers typical routines.

The solution works well because it takes advantage of the highly predictable nature of scammers and fraudsters – they usually work as fast as possible and often with bots to empty out a persons bank account. This highly repetitious behavior can be used against them.

Push Payment Fraud Is Over £345 Million in the UK Last Year

The type of fraud that this prevents is called Push Payments Fraud – a scam that totaled £354.3 million across the UK last year. UK Finance reports that this type of fraud increased by 44% in the last year alone.

Lloyds may be taking more proactive measures because the government is introducing new legislation and initiatives to require banks to reimburse victims of these types of scams.

The government ruled in favor of victims last year when Santander refused to refund a customer £12,000 when they were scammed. “The Rat” is one way to ensure that Lloyds can customers money, which ultimately would save them money in refunds as well.

Infographic on Scams

If you would like a handy infographic on scams, you can find a detailed list of all the scams you could be a victim of here