The Baselayer Fraud Consortium

The Baselayer Fraud Consortium (BFC) is a give-to-get fraud network for Baselayer customers. Member organizations contribute the businesses they've written off due to fraud, and in exchange they get to screen new applicants against the combined pool flagged by every other member.

Fraud rarely hits just one lender. The same synthetic identities, recycled EINs, and rings of bad actors move from one institution to the next. The consortium turns that pattern into a defense: the moment one member reports a fraudulent business, every other member can catch it.

Why it works

Peer-validated signal. Every record in the pool is a business a real member wrote off because of fraud - not a modeled score or a third-party list. When you match, you're matching against fraud someone else already paid for.
Network effect. Each new member and each new submission makes the pool more valuable for everyone. Fraud that would have taken you a loss becomes a hit you catch at application time.
Anonymous by design. Contributing organizations are never named in match results. You see the anonymized fraud record and how many organizations flagged it, never who. Your submissions are protected the same way.

How it works, at a glance

Join. Your organization is activated by Baselayer as a consortium member.
Contribute. You submit the businesses you've written off to fraud as a simple file upload. This is what unlocks and renews your access - the network only works if every member keeps contributing.
Screen. Once you're an active member, you can check new applicants against the consortium in three ways:
- Inline - consortium screening runs automatically as part of a standard Baselayer business search.
- Ad-hoc - a quick lookup on a single applicant using raw identifiers.
- Batch - a portfolio sweep or monitoring run across many businesses at once.

Membership is scoped to a single organization. If you operate multiple organizations on Baselayer, each one joins and contributes on its own.

Access and eligibility

The consortium is available to Baselayer customers, with no separate API key: your existing Baselayer credentials gain access once your organization is enabled.

Activation is a one-time step handled by Baselayer. To get started, contact your Baselayer account manager or email [email protected] with the subject "Fraud Consortium activation request."

Documentation

To protect the integrity of the network, the detailed consortium documentation — data schema, endpoint references, matching behavior, and operational guidance — lives in the customer support center, accessible to authenticated Baselayer customers:

Accessing the Fraud Consortium → — membership states, activation, and keeping your access in good standing
Submitting data → — the CSV schema and upload flow
Running checks → — inline, ad-hoc, and batch screening
FAQ → — common questions on membership, privacy, and pricing

Once your organization is an active member, sign in to support.baselayer.com and open the Fraud Consortium collection for the full documentation set.