fraud

Members of generation Z -- those born in the mid to late 1990s -- are more susceptible to fraud than other age groups and are also committing it at a higher rate.

The latest Digital Trust and Safety Index, released today by Sift, shows that 33 percent of Gen Z survey respondents know someone who has, or have personally, participated in payment fraud, compared to only 10 percent of Baby Boomers.

ComplyAdvantage has released its annual report, "The State of Financial Crime 2024," focusing on the rising trend of artificial intelligence being exploited for fraudulent activities. The report also reveals that, despite consumer apprehension about AI, many financial institutions are investing in technology to tackle this emerging threat.

According to the report, 66 percent of financial industry respondents view the criminal use of AI as a growing cybersecurity threat, with risks ranging from deepfakes to advanced cyber hacks and AI-generated malware. In response, 86 percent of respondents reported that their companies are investing in new technologies. However, only 53 percent prioritized explaining their AI usage to customers.

New research from mobile security platform Zimperium has uncovered 29 malware families targeting 1,800 banking applications across 61 countries in the last year.

US banking institutions remain by far the most targeted by financially motivated threat actors. There were 109 US banks targeted by banking malware in 2023, compared to the next most targeted countries which were the UK (48) and Italy (44). The report also noted that trojans are evolving beyond simple banking apps to target cryptocurrency, social media, and messaging apps.

We know that fraud is on the increase and by their very nature scams can be hard to spot because… Well because they're scams.

Step forward Bitdefender with the launch of a new, free scam detection service designed to help users verify fraudulent online schemes delivered by email, embedded links, text, and instant messaging through collaboration with a chatbot powered by artificial intelligence.

As we enter the busiest period of the year for retail sales, there's less than cheery news that scraping, loyalty card fraud and payment card fraud have increased by a collective average of over 700 percent as attackers lay the groundwork for holiday sale attacks ahead of retailer security crackdowns.

A new report from Cequence Security finds threat actors are evolving their tactics, opting for a more nuanced approach that spreads attacks across a broader timeframe to blend in with legitimate traffic and evade detection ahead of peak holiday shopping times.

In today’s digital age, the landscape of fraud is evolving at an alarming pace. Victim profiles, which used to skew heavily toward the elderly and infirm, now include younger, fully functioning adults. In 2022, 20-59-year-olds reported 63 percent of all fraud in the United States. Industries being targeted by fraudsters are evolving as well, and now include those in crypto and gaming.

In the past, most adults were able to see through scams and avoid them. However, the introduction of generative AI has been a game changer, transforming ordinary schemes into highly sophisticated efforts. Generative AI, a subset of artificial intelligence (AI), is making waves in the world of cybercrime. It is a technology that can generate content that is virtually indistinguishable from human-created content. Whether it's producing convincing text, images, or audio, generative AI leverages deep learning and neural networks to create highly realistic and persuasive output at scale. Shady third-world country call centers have been replaced by autonomous AI tools. This capability has become a powerful tool in the hands of fraudsters.

Global expansion is the way forward for businesses looking to upscale in 2023 and beyond. The past few years have laid the foundation for international expansion, and now more and more merchants are embracing the opportunities.

But as they’re venturing into new markets, certain challenges appear along the way. One of them is cross-border payment. While businesses might be familiar with the fraud situation in their home market, new territories present new fraud obstacles. Here is why fraud familiarization is key to success and what are the fraud profiles of some of the major markets.

A new survey of 500 financial executives in the US shows a 17 percent increase in 'synthetic' identity fraud cases over the past two years, with more than a third of professionals reporting a significant surge of 20 to 50 percent.

The study by Wakefield Research for Deduce finds that despite the industry investing in fraud prevention, 52 percent of experts believe that fraudsters are adapting faster than defenses can keep up.

Whether browsing online for clothes or catching up on the latest news, we’ve all had that unwanted internet cookie pop-up appear. At face-value they may seem harmless, but cookies are a goldmine of private information, posing a serious risk to your data privacy. Today, consumers face a new predicament surrounding attitudes toward their valuable data. When personal data is stolen by a cybercriminal, that offense is the online equivalent of a physical robbery, but the severity of data theft is being overlooked.

From a regulatory standpoint, concerns over data privacy have prompted stricter actions from governments and organizations globally as they try to grapple with the challenge of striking a balance between data security and user privacy. Now, in response to increasingly sophisticated criminal tactics, there must be a shift from slow, reactive regulation towards adopting more proactive strategies that both anticipate and mitigate against potential risks. This will be key to shaping a secure, privacy-conscious future.

A new anti-fraud tool from Jumio uses predictive analytics and AI to look at billions of data points across the company's cross-industry network to identify patterns based on behavioral similarities and other indicators.

Jumio's analysis shows that 25 percent of fraud is interconnected, either being perpetrated by fraud rings or by individuals using the same information or credentials to open new accounts on banking sites, eCommerce platforms, sharing economy sites, etc.

Identity management company AU10TIX has released its latest Global Identity Fraud Report, based on insights from millions of transactions processed in 249 countries from April to June 2023.

It finds there has been a 44 percent increase in organized ID fraud in North America compared to preceding quarters. This upsurge is believed to be driven by the ongoing economic recovery and inflationary pressures, particularly in the US market, which are emboldening professional ID fraud syndicates.

Emails from supposedly wronged and robbed Nigerian nobility asking for help in exchange for a payout of millions were one of the very earliest email scams.

For a while 'Nigerian prince' emails, also known as '419 scams' in reference to part of the Nigerian Criminal Code relating to fraud, were a regular feature in most people's inboxes.

eCommerce presents merchants with an incredible opportunity to distribute their products and services and assert the global market -- but with that, the risk of fraud increases. And online fraud figures are higher than they have ever been.

Payment Service Providers (PSPs) are responsible for mitigating these risks to protect their merchants and consumers. For a long time, PSPs have relied on in-house risk departments to detect, prevent and reduce risk on behalf of their merchants.

We've already seen how generative AI can be used in cyberattacks but now it seems there's an AI model aimed just a cybercriminals.

Every hero has a nemesis and it looks like ChatGPT's could be FraudGPT. Research from security and operations analytics company Netenrich shows recent activities on the Dark Web Forum reveal evidence of the emergence of FraudGPT, which has been circulating on Telegram Channels since July 22nd.

The rise of the e-commerce industry has brought immense convenience and opportunities for businesses and consumers alike. However, this growth has been met with an increase in fraudulent activity, causing significant financial losses for companies. Merchant losses related to online payment fraud are expected to exceed $343 billion by 2027. To combat this persistent threat, the e-commerce industry can harness the power of artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML), and robotic process automation (RPA) to help mitigate these losses, prepare for new fraud attempts and ensure that the customer experience remains intact. 

Utilizing AI-enabled, automated financial operations (FinOps) solutions allows for continuous real-time transaction monitoring. These technologies can effectively bolster security measures by enabling vendors to monitor transactions in real-time, compare them to historical data and safeguard against fraudulent activities by identifying suspicious activity that deviates from normal behavior. Moreover, the adaptive nature of AI empowers it to continually learn and adapt to emerging dishonest tactics, making it an indispensable asset in the relentless battle against illicit activities.