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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
Analysis opportunity for vintage analysis Vintage analysis, specifically vintage pools, present numerous useful opportunities for any firm seeking to further understand the risks within specific portfolios. While most lenders have relatively strong reporting and metrics at hand for their own loan portfolio monitoring…these to understand the specific performance characteristics of their own portfolios — the ability to observe trends and benchmark against similar industry characteristics can enhance their insights significantly. Assuming that a lender possesses the vintage data and vintage analysis capability necessary to perform benchmarking on its portfolio, the next step is defining the specific metrics upon which any comparisons will be made. As mentioned in a previous posting, three aspects of vintage performance are often used to define these points of comparison: Vintage delinquency including charge-off curves, which allows for an understanding of the repayment trends within each pool. Specifically, standard delinquency measures (such as 30+ Days Past Due (DPD), 60+ DPD, 90+ DPD, and charge-off rates) provide measures of early and late stage delinquencies in each pool. Payoff trends, which reflect the pace at which pools are being repaid. While planning for losses through delinquency benchmarking is a critical aspect of this process, so, too, is the ability to understand pre-repayment tendencies and trends. Pre-payment can significantly impact cash-flow modeling and can add insight to interest income estimates and loan duration calculations. As part of the Experian-Oliver Wyman Market Intelligence Reports, these metrics are delivered each quarter, and provide a consistent, static pool base upon which vintage benchmarks can be conducted. Clearly, this is a rather simplified perspective on what can be a very detailed analysis exercise. A properly conducted vintage analysis needs to consider aspects such as: lender portfolio mix at origination; lender portfolio footprint at origination; lender payoff trends and differences from benchmarked industry data in order to properly balance the benchmarked data against the lender portfolio.
By: Kennis Wong When consumers and the media talk about fraud and fraud risk, nine out of ten times they are referring to third-party frauds. When financial institutions or other organizations talk about fraud, fraud best practices, or their efforts to minimize fraud, they usually refer to both first- and third-party frauds. The difference between the two fraud types is huge. Third-party frauds happen when someone impersonates the genuine identity owner to apply for credit or use existing credit. When it’s discovered, the victim, or the genuine identity owner, may have some financial loss — and a whole lot of trouble fixing the mess. Third-party frauds get most of the spotlight in newspaper reporting primarily because of large-scale identity data losses. These data losses may not result in frauds per se, but the perception is that these consumers are now more susceptible to third-party frauds. Financial institutions are getting increasingly sophisticated in using fraud models to detect third-party frauds at acquisition. In a nutshell, these fraud models are detecting frauds by looking at the likelihood of applicants being who they say they are. Institutions bounce the applicants’ identity information off of internal and external data sources such as: credit; known fraud; application; IP; device; employment; business relationship; DDA; demographic; auto; property; and public record. The risk-based approach takes into account the intricate similarities and discrepancies of each piece of data element. In my next blog entry, I’ll discuss first-party fraud.
By: Ken Pruett I find it interesting that the media still focuses all of their attention on identity theft when it comes to credit-related fraud. Don’t get me wrong. This is still a serious problem and is certainly not going away any time soon. But, there are other types of financial fraud that are costing all of us money, indirectly, in the long run. I thought it would be worth mentioning some of these today. Although third party fraud, (which involves someone victimizing a consumer), gets most of the attention, first party fraud (perpetrated by the actual consumer) can be even more costly. “Never pay” and “bust out” are two fraud scenarios that seem to be on the rise and warrant attention when developing a fraud prevention program. Never Pay A growing fraud problem that occurs during the acquisition stage of the customer life cycle is “never pay”. This is also classified as first payment default fraud. Another term we often hear to describe this type of perpetrator is “straight roller”. This type of fraudster is best described as someone who signs up for a product or service — and never makes a payment. This fraud problem occurs when a consumer makes an application for a loan or credit card. The consumer provides true identification information but changes one or two elements (such as the address or social security number). He does this so that he can claim later that he did not apply for the credit. When he’s granted credit, he often makes purchases close to the limit provided on the account. (Why get the 32 inch flat screen TV when the 60 inch is on the next store shelf — when you know you are not going to pay for it anyway?) These fraudsters never make any payments at all on these accounts. The accounts usually end up in collections. Because standard credit risk scores look at long term credit, they often are not effective in predicting this type of fraud. The best approach is to use a fraud model specifically targeted for this issue. Bust Out Fraud Of all the fraud scenarios, bust out fraud is one of the most talked about topics when we meet with credit card companies. This type of fraud occurs during the account management phase of the customer lifecycle. It is characterized by a person obtaining credit, typically a loan or credit card, and maintaining a good credit history with the account holder for a reasonable period of time. Just prior to the bust out point, the fraudster will pay off the majority of the balance, often by using a bad check. She will then run the card up close to the limit again — and then disappear. Losses for this type of fraud are higher than average credit card losses. Losses between 150 to 200 percent of the credit limit are typical. We’ve seen this pattern at numerous credit card institutions across many of their accounts. This is a very difficult type of fraud to prevent. At the time of application, the customer typically looks good from a credit and fraud standpoint. Many companies have some account management tools in place to help prevent this type of fraud, but their systems only have a view into the one account tied to the customer. A best practice for preventing this type of fraud is to use tools that look at all the accounts tied to the consumer — along with other metrics such as recent inquiries. When taking all of these factors into consideration, one can better predict this growing fraud type.