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Updated November 17th Related Posts Link to automotive form, business form
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
The strongest growth in new bankcard accounts is occurring in the near-prime and subprime segments of VantageScore® credit score C, D and F. Year-over-year (Q1 2011 over Q1 2010) growth rates of 20 percent, 46 percent and 53 percent were observed for each of the respective tiers. Listen to our recent webinar featuring bankcard credit trends Source: Experian-Oliver Wyman Market Intelligence Reports
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) now has the ability to write and enforce 18 consumer protection laws that guide financial products and services. The new regulator has signaled the following issues as priorities: Clarity on how credit scores affect lender decisions: Beginning July 21, 2011, lenders were required to disclose the credit score that they used in all risk-based pricing notices and adverse action notices Shorter and simpler consumer disclosure forms: One of the first priorities is to make the terms and conditions associated with purchasing a mortgage or applying for a credit card shorter and clearer Enforcing the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act: The CFPB will enforce the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act and review current debt collector practices Learn more about the CFPB
Auditing provides the organization with assurance that all financial controls are in place to ensure that trust account funds are maintained, access to financial records at the vendor location is tightly controlled, customer data is secure, and that the vendor is in full compliance with contractual requirements (i.e., minimum account servicing requirements for issues such as vendor actions following initial placement, ongoing contact efforts, remittance processing, settlement authorizations, etc.). There are two basic auditing processes that occur from a best practices perspective. The first one is fairly common, and involves use of an on-site audit. Onsite Auditing The onsite audit is required to examine financial records involving customer transactions, accounting processes, trust accounts and remittances, IT and security for handling sensitive customer information and records, and documentation of the processes that have occurred towards customer communication, contact efforts and results. There are differences of opinion as to both the frequency of onsite audits, and whether they should be announced or unannounced. Frequency is primarily an issue of the size of the overall vendor relationship and the degree of financial risk associated with a default, typically involving the trust account and legal exposure to litigation and brand reputation risk. Most utilities should follow an annual onsite audit schedule due to size of portfolio and attendant financial exposure. While surprise audits have the advantage of reducing any opportunity by the vendor to potentially alter records to cover up what would normally be audit violations, it does result in a more time-consuming audit schedule onsite, as the vendor is unable to prepare and have documentation available. The use of substantial online documentation lessens this issue, but nonetheless, there is more work to do onsite when nothing has been captured for review in advance. The other issue is that key managers from the vendor may not be available on the dates of a surprise audit. One way in which organizations chose to resolve the issue of surprise versus planned audit is to conduct one pre-planned and announced audit annually, and a smaller scaled unannounced onsite audit annually at least 2 quarters separated from the planned audit. The use of remote auditing and monitoring lessens the requirements for onsite audits in certain areas, other than IT / Security, financial and compliance. Remote Auditing / Monitoring Remote auditing and monitoring of vendors is a stronger tool for credit grantors to improve performance of agencies, in that it combines some of the same auditing checks to ensure compliance and quality of collections with an added value of focus on performance. The best tool in the arsenal is the use of digital logging to capture the collection call between the vendor and customers. When digital logging technology first came into use, it was cost prohibitive for collection agencies, and not fully accepted by the industry due to its possible use in litigation against the agencies. Over the past decade, as the costs of deployment have lessened, and agencies became more attuned to customer satisfaction and full FDCPA compliance, more agencies have installed digital logging into their call centers. Most agencies that utilize digital logging capture every customer contact effort that results in either a right party contact, or third party contact for messages, etc. Many of those agencies will tag each of these voice records as to whether they were a right party contact or not. The intent is to be able to audit more frequently those calls that were right party contacts, so that collector skills can be assessed in terms of how they managed the customer, their ability to create and sell payment solution, and ability to negotiate successfully with the customer. Typically, an organization that is using digital logging will have an internal quality assurance team that will create a compliance audit process that establishes a number of right party and non-right party contacts per collector. These calls are typically evaluated using a scorecard approach, and used for training purposes. They might alter the frequencies of monitoring based upon the tenure of the collector, their performance levels, and the results of prior monitoring, such that sample sizes are affected. Utilities and other credit grantors should have access to the entire inventory of raw digital log files for their projects and randomly audit them remotely. These should not be “assembled” or pre-selected by the vendor, so that there is no undue influence in deciding which calls / collectors to review. If the vendor is using a QA monitoring / compliance program and separately maintains a scorecard driven monitoring process, the credit grantor should have access where those calls and evaluations related to their own customers and contacts. The intent of the process is to listen for both quality of the communication with the customer from the perspective of effectiveness, but also to ensure compliance with FDCPA and that the customer was treated with respect and appropriately. Typically, a credit grantor would establish a remote monitoring schedule where x calls across the agent pool handing their assigned portfolio are monitored and evaluated with a simple checklist. Ideally, the credit grantor should be listening to a range of 100-150 right party contacts per month, based upon overall inventory and activity, but typically no more than 1-2% of the total right party contacts per month on their customer accounts. The credit grantor should provide monthly feedback to the agency regarding the monitoring of quality and compliance, noting any compliance or policy violations, and any concerns relating to customer contact quality and performance. Other aspects of the remote auditing that occurs each month should include ensuring that all servicing requirements are met. As an example, we would expect that the agency should perform various external checks for bankruptcy, deceased, etc. before initiating contact once the file has been received from the credit grantor as a placement. These database checks should be performed within the first 24 hours once placed, and then a letter of representation should be sent to those not flagged. The initial call to the customer should also occur within 24-48 hours from placement by the credit grantor, subject to phone number availability. Skip trace processes should commence immediately on those without phone numbers. There are requirements for how often accounts are attempted for contact, and settlement authorizations. All of these requirements are subject to the remote monitoring that is performed to ensure these are met. Coming soon… Best practices for improving agency performance.