Combatting Fraud and Unlocking Leasing Efficiency

In the Seamless Leasing and Fraud Detection Innovations breakout session at Entrata Summit 2025 Kelly Canopa, SVP of Product Management at Entrata, and Justin Lynn, Principal Product Education at Entrata zeroed in on one of the industry’s toughest challenges—application fraud—and how smarter technology solutions can be used to address that challenge.

The War Against Fraud: Fighting AI with AI

• The Problem is Worsening: The industry started to see an uptick of fraud at the outset of the COVID-19 pandemic and unfortunately, fraud numbers remain elevated. Part of this increase can be attributed to the rise of consumer AI tools that have unfortunately democratized fraud, making it easier for bad actors to generate sophisticated fake documents.
  
  
• The Scale is Significant: To put the issue into perspective, it was noted that roughly one in four evictions is suspected to be the result of some sort of fraud, underscoring how pervasive the problem has become.
  
  
• The Solution is Proactive: To combat this "industrialized" fraud, Entrata announced we are rolling out proactive fraud detection capabilities. This involves using advanced technology to constantly scan for and flag suspicious behavior before it leads to a signed lease and costly eviction, moving the industry from a reactive to a preemptive defense.

New Tools for Smarter Decision-Making

The session included several product announcements from Entrata designed to give leasing teams a crucial edge in combatting fraud:

• Risk Assessment Score: The Risk Assessment Score is a tool designed to give property teams a comprehensive, data-driven measure of an applicant's potential risk, going beyond traditional metrics to inform strategic decision-making.

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• Homebody Key: This feature is a major step forward in resident access and smart home integration to enhance the living experience for residents.

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• Leasing Journeys: Leasing Journeys is a feature that aims to create highly efficient, guided, and automated pathways for prospects, significantly reducing friction from the first click to the signed lease agreement—functionality that has been long-awaited

If properties want to stay ahead of the fraudsters, it’s imperative that they fight fire with fire and utilize AI for advanced fraud detection and create seamless, intelligent workflows via Leasing Journeys and utilizing the new Risk Assessment Score to create an efficient leasing process that also weeds out potential bad actors.