System and method for detecting fraudulent account access and transfers

A method for detecting fraudulent transfers between financial accounts, comprising:

• receiving account data associated with accounts maintained by a plurality of financial institutions, wherein the account data includes an account ID for each account and account characteristic data associated with account characteristics for each account;
• storing the account data in an account database;
• receiving transfer transaction data associated with the transfer of value from an originating account to a recipient account, wherein the transaction data includes a recipient account ID for the recipient account;
• determining if the recipient account ID matches an account ID stored in the account database;
• when there is a match of the recipient account ID to an account ID stored in the account database, providing to a fraud monitoring system the account data stored in the account database associated with the matched account ID;
• and
• analyzing, at the fraud monitoring system, the account characteristic data to determine a level of risk that the transfer is fraudulent.

A method for detecting fraudulent transfers between financial accounts, comprising:

• receiving account data associated with accounts maintained by a plurality of financial institutions, wherein the account data includes an account ID for each account and account characteristic data reflecting account characteristics for each account;
• storing the account data in a central account database;
• receiving transfer transaction data associated with the transfer of value from an originating account to a recipient account, wherein the transaction data includes a recipient account ID for the recipient account and transfer characteristic data associated with the transfer;
• determining if the recipient account ID matches an account ID stored in the central account database;
• when there is a match of the recipient account ID to an account ID stored in the central account database, providing to a fraud detection system:
• the transfer transaction data, and
• the account data stored in the central account database associated with the matched recipient account ID;
• analyzing, at the fraud monitoring system, the account characteristic data and the transfer characteristic data to determine a level of risk that the transfer transaction is fraudulent;
• and
• generating an alert at the fraud monitoring system if the risk level exceeds a predetermined threshold level.

A system comprising computer-readable memory having stored therein a sequence of instructions which, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to detect unauthorized transactions from an originating account to a recipient account, by:

• receiving, from a plurality of institutions, account data associated with accounts maintained by the institutions, wherein the account data includes characteristics of each account;
• storing the account data in an account database;
• and
• analyzing the account data stored in the account database for at least one of the accounts, to determine a risk score for that account as a recipient account, the risk score reflecting the risk that a transfer into the recipient account is unauthorized.