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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
By: Kennis Wong In this blog entry, we have repeatedly emphasized the importance of a risk-based approach when it comes to fraud detection. Scoring and analytics are essentially the heart of this approach. However, unlike the rule-based approach, where users can easily understand the results, (i.e. was the S.S.N. reported deceased? Yes/No; Is the application address the same as the best address on the credit bureau? Yes/No), scores are generated in a black box where the reason for the eventual score is not always apparent even in a fraud database. Hence more homework needs to be done when selecting and using a generic fraud score to make sure they satisfy your needs. Here are some basic questions you may want to ask yourself: What do I want the score to predict? This may seem like a very basic question, but it does warrant your consideration. Are you trying to detect these areas in your fraud database? First-party fraud, third-party fraud, bust out fraud, first payment default, never pay, or a combination of these? These questions are particularly important when you are validating a fraud model. For example, if you only have third-party fraud tagged in your test file, a bust out fraud model would not perform well. It would just be a waste of your time. What data was used for model development? Other important questions you may want to ask yourself include: Was the score based on sub-prime credit card data, auto loan data, retail card data or another fraud database? It’s not a definite deal breaker if it was built with credit card data, but, if you have a retail card portfolio, it may still perform well for you. If the scores are too far off, though, you may not have good result. Moreover, you also want to understand the number of different portfolios used for model development. For example, if only one creditor’s data is used, then it may not have the general applicability to other portfolios.
In my previous two blog postings, I’ve tried to briefly articulate some key elements of and value propositions associated with risk-based authentication. In this entry, I’d like to suggest some best-practices to consider as you incorporate and maintain a risk-based authentication program. 1. Analytics – since an authentication score is likely the primary decisioning element in any risk-based authentication strategy, it is critical that a best-in-class scoring model is chosen and validated to establish performance expectations. This initial analysis will allow for decisioning thresholds to be established. This will also allow accept and referral volumes to be planned for operationally. Further more, it will permit benchmarks to be established which follow on performance monitoring that can be compared. 2. Targeted decisioning strategies – applying unique and tailored decisioning strategies (incorporating scores and other high-risk or positive authentication results) to various access channels to your business just simply makes sense. Each access channel (call center, Web, face-to-face, etc.) comes with unique risks, available data, and varied opportunity to apply an authentication strategy that balances these areas; risk management, operational effectiveness, efficiency and cost, improved collections and customer experience. Champion/challenger strategies may also be a great way to test newly devised strategies within a single channel without taking risk to an entire addressable market and your business as a whole. 3. Performance Monitoring – it is critical that key metrics are established early in the risk-based authentication implementation process. Key metrics may include, but should not be limited to these areas: • actual vs. expected score distributions; • actual vs. expected characteristic distributions; • actual vs. expected question performance; • volumes, exclusions; • repeats and mean scores; • actual vs. expected pass rates; • accept vs. referral score distribution; • trends in decision code distributions; and • trends in decision matrix distributions. Performance monitoring provides an opportunity to manage referral volumes, decision threshold changes, strategy configuration changes, auto-decisioning criteria and pricing for risk based authentication. 4. Reporting – it likely goes without saying, but in order to apply the three best practices above, accurate, timely, and detailed reporting must be established around your authentication tools and results. Regardless of frequency, you should work with internal resources and your third-party service provider(s) early in your implementation process to ensure relevant reports are established and delivered. In my next posting, I will be discussing some thoughts about the future state of risk based authentication.
In my last blog posting, I presented the foundational elements that enable risk-based authentication. These include data, detailed and granular results, analytics and decisioning. The inherent value of risk-based authentication can be summarized as delivering an holistic assessment of a consumer and/or transaction with the end goal of applying the right authentication and decisioning treatment at the right time. The opportunity, especially, to minimize fraud losses using fraud analytics as part of your assessment is significant. What are some residual values of risk-based authentication? 1. Minimized fraud losses involves the use of fraud analytics, and a more comprehensive view of a consumer identity (the good and the bad), in combination with consistent decisioning over time. This analysis will outperform simple binary rules and more subjective decisioning. 2. Improved consumer experience. By applying the right authentication and treatment at the right time, consumers are subjected to processes that are proportional to the risk associated with their identity profile. This means that lower-risk consumers are less likely to be put through more arduous courses of action, preserving a streamlined and often purely “behind the scenes” authentication process for the majority of consumers and potential consumers. In other words, you are saving the pain for the bad guys — and that can be a good thing. 3. Operational efficiencies can be successful with the implementation of a well-designed program. Much of the decisioning can be done without human intervention and subjective contemplation. Use of score-driven policies affords businesses the opportunity to use automated authentication processes for the majority of their applicants or account management cases. Fewer human resources will be required which usually means lower costs. Or, it can mean the human resources you possess are more appropriately focused on the applications or transactions that warrant such attention. 4. Measurable performance is critical because understanding the past and current performance of risk-based authentication policies allows for the adjustment over time of such policies. These adjustments can be made based on evolving fraud risks, resource constraints, approval rate pressures, and compliance requirements, just to name a few. Given its importance, Experian recommends performance monitoring for our clients using our authentication products. In my next posting, I’ll discuss some best practices associated with implementing and managing a risk-based authentication program.