Risk of fraud classification

Abstract

In this article, we define consumers’ profiles of electricity who commit fraud. We also compare these profiles with users’ profiles not classified as fraudsters in order to determine which of these clients should receive an inspection. We present a statistically consistent method to classify clients/users as fraudsters or not, according to the profiles of previously identified fraudsters. We show that it is possible to use several characteristics to inspect the classification of fraud; those aspects are represented by the coding performed in the observed series of clients/users. In this way, several encodings can be used, and the client risk can be constructed to integrate complementary aspects. We show that the classification method has success rates that exceed 77%, which allows us to infer confidence in the methodology.