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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
Recent findings on vintage analysis Source: Experian-Oliver Wyman Market Intelligence Reports Analyzing recent vintage analysis provides insights gleaned from cursory review Analyzing recent trends from vintages published in the Experian-Oliver Wyman Market Intelligence Reports, there are numerous insights that can be gleaned from just a cursory review of the results. Mortgage vintage analysis trends As noted in an earlier posting, recent mortgage vintage analysis' show a broad range of behaviors between more recent vintages and older, more established vintages that were originated before the significant run-up of housing prices seen in the middle of the decade. The 30+ delinquency levels for mortgage vintages in 2005, 2006, and 2007 approach and in two cases exceed 10 percent of trades in the last 12 months of performance, and have spiked from historical trends, beginning almost immediately after origination. On the other end of the spectrum, the vintages from 2003 and 2002 have barely approached or exceeded 5 percent for the last 6 or 7 years. Bandcard vintage analysis trends As one would expect, the 30+ delinquency trends demonstrated within bankcard vintage analysis are vastly different from the trends of mortgage vintages. Firstly, card delinquencies show a clear seasonal trend, with a more consistent yearly pattern evident in all vintages, resulting from the revolving structure of the product. The most interesting trends within the card vintages do show that the more recent vintages, 2005 to 2008, display higher 30+ delinquency levels, especially the Q2 2007 vintage, which is far and away the underperformer of the group. Within each vintage pool, an analysis can extend into the risk distribution and details of the portfolio and further segment the pool by credit score, specifically the VantageScore® credit score. In other words, the loans in this pool are only for the most creditworthy customers at the time of origination. The noticeable trend is that while these consumers were largely resistant to deteriorating economic conditions, each vintage segment has seen a spike in the most recent 9-12 months. Given that these consumers tend to have the highest limits and lowest utilization of any VantageScore® credit score band, this trend encourages further account management consideration and raises flags about overall bankcard performance in coming months. Even a basic review of vintage analysis pools and the subsequent analysis opportunities that result from this data can be extremely useful. This vintage analysis can add a new perspective to risk management, supplementing more established analysis techniques, and further enhancing the ability to see the risk within the risk. Purchase a complete picture of consumer credit trends from Experian’s database of over 230 million consumers with the Market Intelligence Brief.
As I wrote in my previous posting, a key Red Flags Rule challenge facing many institutions is one that manages the number of referrals generated from the detection of Red Flags conditions. The big ticket item in referral generation is the address mismatch condition. Identity Theft Prevention Program I’ve blogged previously on the subject of risk-based authentication and risk-based pricing, so I won’t rehash that information. What I will suggest, however, is that those institutions who now have an operational Identity Theft Prevention Program (if you don’t, I’d hurry up) should continue to explore the use of alternate data sources, analytics and additional authentication tools (such as knowledge-based authentication) as a way to detect Red Flags conditions and reconcile them all within the same real-time transaction. Referral rates Referral rates stemming from address mismatches (a key component of the Red Flags Rule high risk conditions) can approach or even surpass 30 percent. That is a lot. The good news is that there are tools which employ additional data sources beyond a credit profile to “find” that positive address match. The use of alternate data sources can often clear the majority of these initial mismatches, leaving the remaining transactions for treatment with analytics and knowledge-based authentication and Identity Theft Prevention Program. Whatever “referral management” process you have in place today, I’d suggest exploring risk-based authentication tools that allow you to keep the vast majority of those referrals out of the hands of live agents, and distanced from the need to put your customers through the authentication wringer. In the current marketplace, there are many services that allow you to avoid high referral costs and risks to customer experience. Of course, we think ours are pretty good.
By: Wendy Greenawalt In the last installment of my three part series dispelling credit attribute myths, we’ll discuss the myth that the lift achieved by utilizing new attributes is minimal, so it is not worth the effort of evaluating and/or implementing new credit attributes. First, evaluating accuracy and efficiency of credit attributes is hard to measure. Experian data experts are some of the best in the business and, in this edition, we will discuss some of the methods Experian uses to evaluate attribute performance. When considering any new attributes, the first method we use to validate statistical performance is to complete a statistical head-to-head comparison. This method incorporates the use of KS (Kolmogorov–Smirnov statistic), Gini coefficient, worst-scoring capture rate or odds ratio when comparing two samples. Once completed, we implement an established standard process to measure value from different outcomes in an automated and consistent format. While this process may be time and labor intensive, the reward can be found in the financial savings that can be obtained by identifying the right segments, including: • Risk models that better identify “bad” accounts and minimizing losses • Marketing models that improve targeting while maximizing campaign dollars spent • Collections models that enhance identification of recoverable accounts leading to more recovered dollars with lower fixed costs Credit attributes Recently, Experian conducted a similar exercise and found that an improvement of 2-to-22 percent in risk prediction can be achieved through the implementation of new attributes. When these metrics are applied to a portfolio where several hundred bad accounts are now captured, the resulting savings can add up quickly (500 accounts with average loss rate of $3,000 = $1.5M potential savings). These savings over time more than justify the cost of evaluating and implementing new credit attributes.