Investigators use OSINT to expose lifestyle gaps that reveal tax and welfare fraud - London Business News | Londonlovesbusiness.com
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Investigators use OSINT to expose lifestyle gaps that reveal tax and welfare fraud - London Business News | Londonlovesbusiness.com
"OSINT tools primarily ensure integrity, efficiency, and evidential reliability. They remove much of the manual burden associated with advanced search techniques - rather than manually running numerous queries or variations of names, tools can automate and streamline these processes, cycling through multiple parameters quickly and accurately. In short, OSINT tools increase speed, consistency, and evidential integrity throughout the online research process."
"While fraudsters may mis-state income on tax returns or benefits claims, patterns in publicly available information can reveal inconsistencies. OSINT - the targeted use of publicly available data - enables investigators to spot contradictions between declarations and lifestyle that may indicate fraud. Investigators commonly encounter indicators such as individuals declaring minimal income alongside online behaviour suggesting a more substantial lifestyle, or corporate records revealing complex networks of companies registered to single addresses."
Open-source intelligence (OSINT) connects public data to reveal tax and benefit fraud by exposing inconsistencies between declared income and visible lifestyle. Patterns emerge across social media, online marketplaces, and corporate registries, such as minimal declared income paired with online behaviour indicating higher living standards, or multiple companies registered to single addresses. Investigations require searching many platforms, cross-referencing identifiers, and mapping complex corporate networks. Advanced OSINT technology automates queries, cycles parameters quickly, and increases evidential reliability. Government plans to reduce the tax gap and raise revenue will require scalable, efficient, investigative tools to handle the volume and complexity of modern fraud.
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