Systems and methods for determining whether an authorized or genuine filter element is installed in a filtration system are described. The authorized filter determination may be based on radio frequency identification (“RFID”) technology. RFID readers with antennas in the monitored filter systems read the RFID tag information from the installed filter elements and feed any detected information into the filter monitoring system. The filter monitoring system or a remote diagnostic system analyzes the returned data (or absence thereof) to determine if a genuine (i.e., authorized, OEM approved, etc.) filter element is installed or not.