How large are the risks of fraud in leasing and how to protect your money with VIEWAPP
A leasing company may finance equipment, transport, or other machinery that exists only on paper. Fake documents, photographs, and acceptance certificates create the appearance of a legitimate transaction, but after the money is transferred, it turns out that the leased asset does not exist, and it is practically impossible to recover the funds.
Such schemes are being uncovered in various European countries. For leasing companies, this means not only direct financial losses but also the need to revise approaches to verifying property before financing and throughout the entire term of the contract.
When documents confirm the existence of property that does not exist
In June 2024, the Italian Financial Guard reported an investigation into a series of frauds against five leasing companies. According to the investigation, the participants in the scheme offered to finance industrial equipment that in reality did not exist. Fake acceptance and transportation documents, fictitious test reports, and altered photographic materials were used to confirm the transactions. The investigation covered 18 episodes with estimated damage of about 1 million euros. Source: ANSA, June 14, 2024.
In September 2026, an investigation into another alleged fraud began in Slovakia. According to police information, an unknown person provided documents, photographs of cars, and fake registration papers. The leasing company transferred funds for the purchase of 15 cars, but, according to preliminary investigation results, never became their owner. The preliminary damage was estimated at almost 1.5 million euros. At the time of publication, no charges had been brought against specific individuals. Source: STVR, September 9, 2026.
These cases demonstrate a common mechanism: fraudsters use trust in documents and transaction participants to obtain financing without real property as collateral.
Why standard document verification may not be enough
When financing equipment or transport, a leasing company checks the supplier, contracts, invoices, and documents on the transfer of property. However, even a formally correct set of papers does not always confirm that the object exists, is located at the specified address, and has actually been transferred to the lessee.
Processes in which the inspection is carried out by employees of the supplier or lessee, while specialists of the leasing company make a decision remotely — based on photographs and reports — are especially vulnerable.
Risks arise at several stages:
• Before the transfer of funds. The documents may indicate a non-existent object or equipment that the supplier did not purchase.
• When confirming delivery. Fake certificates and photographs create the appearance that the machinery has been delivered and accepted.
• During monitoring. The property may be absent from the declared address, be moved, or be transferred to third parties, while the inspection report does not reflect the actual situation.
Therefore, verification of documents and the physical presence of property must complement each other. At the same time, even an ordinary on-site inspection does not eliminate all risks: much depends on who conducts it, how the results are recorded, and how reliable the materials obtained are.
How VIEWAPP helps control property
VIEWAPP is a platform for digital inspections with anti-fraud mechanisms. It helps organize the collection of photo and video materials, verify their authenticity, and control compliance with the inspection procedure.
Recording of the object according to a predefined scenario. Inspection forms are configured for the type of property and the requirements of the leasing company. It is possible to provide for mandatory angles, photographs of individual elements, identification numbers, and other information necessary to confirm the presence of the object.
Verification of the authenticity of materials. The platform uses technical mechanisms to identify signs of substitution and unreliable recording. These include checking geolocation and metadata, detecting photographing of a screen and uploading images from the gallery, monitoring file integrity, and identifying other anomalies. This helps detect situations where the submitted materials may not correspond to a real inspection.
Protection against the upload of ready-made and generated materials. The inspection is conducted with photo and video recording directly in the application: it is impossible to upload ready-made files from the gallery. This makes it more difficult to use pre-prepared images, including those generated or altered with the help of AI, to simulate a real inspection. In combination with checking geolocation, metadata, and other signs of authenticity, this approach helps increase the reliability of the results.
Control of location and progress of the inspection. Geodata and information on task completion provide additional context for verifying where and how the recording of property was carried out. This is especially relevant for distributed fleets of machinery, equipment at different production sites, and objects that need to be regularly monitored.
A unified process for different participants. Inspections can be performed by company employees, partner representatives, or other authorized persons. Configurable scenarios and a unified format of results simplify subsequent verification of materials and make it possible to apply common requirements to inspections in different divisions and regions.
At the same time, automatic checks do not replace an expert. The system helps identify suspicious signs, while a specialist evaluates them in the context of the transaction and decides whether additional verification is necessary.
Protection is needed not only when financing is issued
Confirming the existence of property at the time of purchase is an important but not the only stage of control. During the term of the contract, machinery may move between sites, change condition, or change its actual location. Therefore, digital inspections are also useful for regular monitoring of leased assets.
Depending on the task, a company can organize initial recording upon transfer of property, scheduled inspections of a fleet of machinery, and unscheduled inspections when suspicions arise. A unified digital process helps compare inspection results and preserve the history of inspections.
VIEWAPP cannot independently guarantee the absence of fraud or replace verification of ownership, counterparties, and contractual documents. However, the platform makes it possible to strengthen control precisely where a gap arises between the documentary confirmation of a transaction and the actual condition of the property.
The more reliably the existence of the leased asset is confirmed, the fewer opportunities there are to use fictitious delivery or an unreliable report to obtain financing. For a leasing company, digital inspection becomes a decisive tool for verifying property and protecting invested funds.