UC San Diego launches new processes and technology

Fraudsters Attack Universities via Direct Deposit

Like other universities, UC San Diego has not been immune from an increase in fraud attempts, including those involving direct deposit and wire fraud. Fraudsters have been diligently attacking higher education institutions by impersonating vendors.

In response, the IPPS Payment Services team implemented a two-step verification process, requiring manual research, to validate that all requested changes to payee banking information are actually provided by the supplier. This change recently resulted in uncovering a fraudster who had requested a change to a UC San Diego vendor's bank information. Last year, UC San Diego paid over $37M to this vendor. While investigating the change, three payments reaching nearly $4M could have been misdirected to the fraudster, but thanks to the new verification process, were paid correctly to the vendor. The additional steps implemented by Payment Services prevented what could have been a great loss! 

Mail Matrix: The future is here!

New and exciting technology is being integrated into IPPS Campus and Student Mail! The Mail Matrix utilizes intelligent robotic wireless vehicles (iBOTs) to distribute a wide variety of mail into a convenient array of bins in a single pass (up to 3,000 pieces per hour). When fully implemented, the Mail Matrix will provide speedy and accurate mail distribution to campus while increasing operational efficiency, decreasing costs and reducing physical impact on our staff. The Mail Matrix replaced the manual sorting process at the beginning of the fall quarter, and the team is continuously enhancing its use of the machine!

Curious to see it in action? Meet the mail matrix.