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As Valentine’s Day approaches, hearts will melt, but some will inevitably be broken by romance scams. This season of love creates an opportune moment for scammers to prey on individuals feeling lonely or seeking connection. Financial institutions should take this time to warn customers about the heightened risks and encourage vigilance against fraud. In a tale as heart-wrenching as it is cautionary, a French woman named Anne was conned out of nearly $855,000 in a romance scam that lasted over a year. Believing she was communicating with Hollywood star Brad Pitt; Anne was manipulated by scammers who leveraged AI technology to impersonate the actor convincingly. Personalized messages, fabricated photos, and elaborate lies about financial needs made the scam seem credible. Anne’s story, though extreme, highlights the alarming prevalence and sophistication of romance scams in today’s digital age. According to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), nearly 70,000 Americans reported romance scams in 2022, with losses totaling $1.3 billion—an average of $4,400 per victim. These scams, which play on victims’ emotions, are becoming increasingly common and devastating, targeting individuals of all ages and backgrounds. Financial institutions have a crucial role in protecting their customers from these schemes. The lifecycle of a romance scam Romance scams follow a consistent pattern: Feigned connection: Scammers create fake profiles on social media or dating platforms using attractive photos and minimal personal details. Building trust: Through lavish compliments, romantic conversations, and fabricated sob stories, scammers forge emotional bonds with their targets. Initial financial request: Once trust is established, the scammer asks for small financial favors, often citing emergencies. Escalation: Requests grow larger, with claims of dire situations such as medical emergencies or legal troubles. Disappearance: After draining the victim’s funds, the scammer vanishes, leaving emotional and financial devastation in their wake. Lloyds Banking Group reports that men made up 52% of romance scam victims in 2023, though women lost more on average (£9,083 vs. £5,145). Individuals aged 55-64 were the most susceptible, while those aged 65-74 faced the largest losses, averaging £13,123 per person. Techniques scammers use Romance scammers are experts in manipulation. Common tactics include: Fabricated sob stories: Claims of illness, injury, or imprisonment. Investment opportunities: Offers to “teach” victims about investing. Military or overseas scenarios: Excuses for avoiding in-person meetings. Gift and delivery scams: Requests for money to cover fake customs fees. How financial institutions can help Banks and financial institutions are on the frontlines of combating romance scams. By leveraging technology and adopting proactive measures, they can intercept fraud before it causes irreparable harm. 1. Customer education and awareness Conduct awareness campaigns to educate clients about common scam tactics. Provide tips on recognizing fake profiles and unsolicited requests. Share real-life stories, like Anne’s, to highlight the risks. 2. Advanced data capture solutions Implement systems that gather and analyze real-time customer data, such as IP addresses, browsing history, and device usage patterns. Use behavioral analytics to detect anomalies in customer actions, such as hesitation or rushed transactions, which may indicate stress or coercion. 3. AI and machine learning Utilize AI-driven tools to analyze vast datasets and identify suspicious patterns. Deploy daily adaptive models to keep up with emerging fraud trends. 4. Real-time fraud interception Establish rules and alerts to flag unusual transactions. Intervene with personalized messages before transfers occur, asking “Do you know and trust this person?” Block transactions if fraud is suspected, ensuring customers’ funds are secure. Collaborating for greater impact Financial institutions cannot combat romance scams alone. Partnerships with social media platforms, AI companies, and law enforcement are essential. Social media companies must shut down fake profiles proactively, while regulatory frameworks should enable banks to share information about at-risk customers. Conclusion Romance scams exploit the most vulnerable aspects of human nature: the desire for love and connection. Stories like Anne’s underscore the emotional and financial toll these scams take on victims. However, with robust technological solutions and proactive measures, financial institutions can play a pivotal role in protecting their customers. By staying ahead of fraud trends and educating clients, banks can ensure that the pursuit of love remains a source of joy, not heartbreak. Learn more
As data breaches become an ever-growing threat to businesses, the role of employees in maintaining cybersecurity has never been more critical. Did you know that 82% of data breaches involve the human element1 , such as phishing, stolen credentials, or social engineering tactics? These statistics reveal a direct connection between employee identity theft and business vulnerabilities. In this blog, we’ll explore why protecting your employees’ identities is essential to reducing data breach risk, how employee-focused identity protection programs, and specifically employee identity protection, improve both cybersecurity and employee engagement, and how businesses can implement comprehensive solutions to safeguard sensitive data and enhance overall workforce well-being. The Rising Challenge: Data Breaches and Employee Identity Theft The past few years have seen an exponential rise in data breaches. According to the Identity Theft Resource Center, there were 1,571 data compromises in the first half of 2024, impacting more than 1.1 billion individuals – a 490% increase year over year2. A staggering proportion of these breaches originated from compromised employee credentials or phishing attacks. Explore Experian's Employee Benefits Solutions The Link Between Employee Identity Theft and Cybersecurity Risks Phishing and Social EngineeringPhishing attacks remain one of the top strategies used by cybercriminals. These attacks often target employees by exploiting personal information stolen through identity theft. For example, a cybercriminal who gains access to an employee's compromised email or social accounts can use this information to craft realistic phishing messages, tricking them into divulging sensitive company credentials. Compromised Credentials as Entry PointsCompromised employee credentials were responsible for 16% of breaches and were the costliest attack vector, averaging $4.5 million per breach3. When an employee’s identity is stolen, it can give hackers a direct line to your company’s network, jeopardizing sensitive data and infrastructure. The Cost of DowntimeBeyond the financial impact, data breaches disrupt operations, erode customer trust, and harm your brand. For businesses, the average downtime from a breach can last several weeks – time that could otherwise be spent growing revenue and serving clients. Why Businesses Need to Prioritize Employee Identity Protection Protecting employee identities isn’t just a personal benefit – it’s a strategic business decision. Here are three reasons why identity protection for employees is essential to your cybersecurity strategy: 1. Mitigate Human Risk in Cybersecurity Employee mistakes, often resulting from phishing scams or misuse of credentials, are a leading cause of breaches. By equipping employees with identity protection services, businesses can significantly reduce the likelihood of stolen information being exploited by fraudsters and cybercriminals. 2. Boost Employee Engagement and Financial Wellness Providing identity protection as part of an employee benefits package signals that you value your workforce’s security and well-being. Beyond cybersecurity, offering such protections can enhance employee loyalty, reduce stress, and improve productivity. Employers who pair identity protection with financial wellness tools can empower employees to monitor their credit, secure their finances, and protect against fraud, all of which contribute to a more engaged workforce. 3. Enhance Your Brand Reputation A company’s cybersecurity practices are increasingly scrutinized by customers, stakeholders, and regulators. When you demonstrate that you prioritize not just protecting your business, but also safeguarding your employees’ identities, you position your brand as a leader in security and trustworthiness. Practical Strategies to Protect Employee Identities and Reduce Data Breach Risk How can businesses take actionable steps to mitigate risks and protect their employees? Here are some best practices: Offer Comprehensive Identity Protection Solutions A robust identity protection program should include: Real-time monitoring for identity theft Alerts for suspicious activity on personal accounts Data and device protection to protect personal information and devices from identity theft, hacking and other online threats Fraud resolution services for affected employees Credit monitoring and financial wellness tools Leading providers like Experian offer customizable employee benefits packages that provide proactive identity protection, empowering employees to detect and resolve potential risks before they escalate. Invest in Employee Education and Training Cybersecurity is only as strong as your least-informed employee. Provide regular training sessions and provide resources to help employees recognize phishing scams, understand the importance of password hygiene, and learn how to avoid oversharing personal data online. Implement Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) MFA adds an extra layer of security, requiring employees to verify their identity using multiple credentials before accessing sensitive systems. This can drastically reduce the risk of compromised credentials being misused. Partner with a Trusted Identity Protection Provider Experian’s suite of employee benefits solutions combines identity protection with financial wellness tools, helping your employees stay secure while also boosting their financial confidence. Only Experian can offer these integrated solutions with unparalleled expertise in both identity protection and credit monitoring. Conclusion: Identity Protection is the Cornerstone of Cybersecurity The rising tide of data breaches means that businesses can no longer afford to overlook the role of employee identity in cybersecurity. By prioritizing identity protection for employees, organizations can reduce the risk of costly breaches and also create a safer, more engaged, and financially secure workforce. Ready to protect your employees and your business? Take the next step toward safeguarding your company’s future. Learn more about Experian’s employee benefits solutions to see how identity protection and financial wellness tools can transform your workplace security and employee engagement. Learn more 1 2024 Experian Data Breach Response Guide 2 Identity Theft Resource Center. H1 2024 Data Breach Analysis 3 2023 IBM Cost of a Data Breach Report
By: Joel Pruis What is it we as bankers are trying to accomplish? If you have been in the industry for 20+ years, this question may sound ridiculous! We do what we do! We are bankers! What do you mean define what are we trying to do? But that is the question, what is it we are trying to do? I am going to propose we boil it down to the basic/fundamental element – Banks aggregate money from various sources and redeploy these funds to earn a return for the shareholders. Ultimately, our objective is to generate an appropriate return for the shareholders Getting back to the movie Moneyball, Billy Beane and Peter Brand define the objective of the Oakland A’s for the season in terms of projecting the number of wins that are needed to assure, with all probability, that the team makes the playoffs (this would be similar to the objective of banking to generate an appropriate return for the shareholders). But Peter Brand quickly moves into very specific targets that are required for the A’s to make it to the playoffs, namely win 99 regular season games. In order to win 99 regular season games, the A’s offense will need to score 814 runs in the season and defensively only allow 645 runs. Plain and simple. Very objective, very measurable and it is all based upon data, data, data. Let’s break this down. Based upon their conference, the teams in their conference along with the overall schedule, Peter Brand projects that 99 wins are necessary to land a spot in the playoffs. No gut check, no darts or crystal ball but rather historical data that when analyzed provides the benchmark of 99 wins to statistically assure the Oakland A’s that they will make the playoffs. So let’s apply this to banking. Our objective is to generate the appropriate return for our shareholders or the old Return on Equity. So, for example, if our targeted return on equity is 20% (making the playoffs) we need to make sure we generate enough net income (99 wins) through producing the necessary gross yield on assets (814 runs generated by the Oakland A’s offense) less the expected charge offs (645 runs allowed by the Oakland A’s defense). For a quick dive into details, our data would provide for a margin of error on the variable to provide for statistical assurance of achieving the objective (Return on Equity). In the movie there is no guaranty that the 814 runs will win the conference but at the same time there is no guaranty that the Oakland A’s opponents will score 645 runs. Never in the movie does the coach, Billy Beane or Peter Brand tell the team, “You only have to score X number of runs this game, don’t score anymore.” Or even crazier, “You are not letting the other team score enough runs, they need to score 645!” No, the strategy is still to generate as many runs as possible while minimizing the number of runs scored by the opposition. Rather it is the review of the total amount of earning assets of the financial institution and the overall credit quality that we must understand and control to determine our ability to generate the net yield on assets required to generate the return on equity that is required. If we assume too much risk in the portfolio in order to generate the required yield it would be similar to having a poor pitching staff projected to allow 10 runs a game requiring the team to produce 11 runs a game in order to win. It just is not realistic. So basically we need to assess at the high level, are we appropriately structured to allow for the generation of enough profit to provide the appropriate return on equity. At this point, we do not need to complicate it any further than that. Now let’s take a look at the constraints. We know we have them in banking, let’s take a look at probably the single biggest constraint imposed on Billy Beane and the Oakland A’s. In the movie, before Billy Beane is even aware of the Moneyball concept, his is given his constraint by the owner. Beane asks for more money to ‘buy players’ and is flat out rejected by the owner. The owner, in fact, cuts Beane off by asking, “is there anything else I can do for you?”. Net result is that the Oakland A’s have $38 million dollars for payroll vs. the New York Yankees at $120 million. Seriously it does not seem fair. How can you attract the needed talent when you cannot pay the type of salary needed to get the necessary players to win a championship? Let’s rephrases this for banking… How can a bank be expected to deploy its assets when such a high rate of return is required? Boiling it down to a specific example, “How can I originate a commercial loan at this rate of interest when the competition is ½ to 1% lower than our rates?” Up next – Why will 99 games get us to the playoffs? How do we assess the environment?
A recent study comparing financial differences between men and women found that, overall, women are better at managing money and debt. Differences between the two populations include: Men have 4.3 percent more debt than women Men have a 2 percent higher credit utilization amount Mortgage loan amounts for men are 4.9 percent higher Men have a higher incidence of late mortgage payments by 7 percent Read more details from the analysis — including an infographic and statistics by city and state. Source: Women Flexing Their Financial Muscles; Women's Credit is in Better Shape Than Men's Credit
By: Joel Pruis Times are definitely different in the banking world today. Regulations, competition from other areas, specialized lenders, different lending methods resulting in the competitive landscape we have today. One area that is significantly different today, and for the better, is the availability of data. Data from our core accounting systems, data from our loan origination systems, data from the credit bureaus for consumer and for business. You name it, there is likely a data source that at least touches on the area if not provides full coverage. But what are we doing with all this data? How are we using it to improve our business model in the banking environment? Does it even factor into the equation when we are making tactical or strategic decisions affecting our business? Unfortunately, I see too often where business decisions are being made based upon anecdotal evidence and not considering the actual data. Let’s take, for example, Major League Baseball. How much statistics have been gathered on baseball? I remember as a boy keeping the stats while attending a Detroit Tigers game, writing down the line up, what happened when each player was up to bat, strikes, balls, hits, outs, etc. A lot of stats but were they the right stats? How did these stats correlate to whether the team won or lost, does the performance in one game translate into predictable performance of an entire season for a player or a team? Obviously one game does not determine an entire season but how often do we reference a single event as the basis for a strategic decision? How often do we make decisions based upon traditional methods without questioning why? Do we even reference traditional stats when making strategic decisions? Or do we make decisions based upon other factors as the scouts of the Oakland A’s were doing in the movie Moneyball? In one scene of the Movie, Billy Beane, general manager of the A’s, is asking his team of scouts to define the problem they are trying to solve. The responses are all very subjective in nature and only correlate to how to replace “talented” players that were lost due to contract negotiations, etc. Nowhere in this scene do any of the scouts provide any true stats for who they want to pursue to replace the players they just lost. Everything that the scouts are talking about relates to singular assessments of traits that have not been demonstrated to correlate to a team making the playoffs let alone win a single game. The scouts with all of their experience focus on the player’s swing, ability to throw, running speed, etc. At one point the scouts even talk about the appearance of the player’s girlfriends! But what if we changed how we looked at the sport of baseball? What if we modified the stats used to compile a team; determine how much to pay for an individual player? The movie Moneyball highlights this assessment of the conventional stats and their impact or correlation to a team actually winning games and more importantly the overall regular season. Bill James is given the credit in the movie for developing the methodology ultimately used by the Oakland A’s in the movie. This methodology is also referred to as Sabermetrics. In another scene, Peter Brand, explains how baseball is stuck in the old style of thinking. The traditional perspective is to buy ‘players’. In viewing baseball as buying players, the traditional baseball industry has created a model/profile of what is a successful or valuable player. Buy the right talent and then hopefully the team will win. Instead, Brand changes the buy from players to buying wins. Buying wins which require buying runs, in other words, buy enough average runs per game and you should outscore your opponent and win enough games to win your conference. But why does that mean we would have to change the way that we look at the individual players? Doesn’t a high batting average have some correlation to the number of runs scored? Don’t RBI’s (runs batted in) have some level of correlation to runs? I’m sure there is some correlation but as you start to look at the entire team or development of the line up for any give game, do these stats/metrics have the best correlation to lead to greater predictability of a win or more specifically the predictability of a winning season? Similarly, regardless of how we as bankers have made strategic decisions in the past, it is clear that we have to first figure out what it is exactly we are trying to solve, what we are trying to accomplish. We have the buzz words, the traditional responses, the non-specific high level descriptions that ultimately leave us with no specific direction. Ultimately it allows us to just continue the business as usual approach and hope for the best. In the next few upcoming blogs, we will continue to use the movie Moneyball as the back drop for how we need to stir things up, identify exactly what it is we are trying to solve and figure out how to best approach the solution.