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The past few years have sparked a swift digital transformation that subsequently drove a rapid increase in fraud. In fact, fraudsters have gotten more creative, putting businesses and consumers at risk now more than ever. At Experian, we predict that more intricate challenges lie ahead and are dedicated to helping businesses combat fraud threats. Here’s what we expect in 2022: 1. Buy Now, Pay Never – The Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) space has grown massively recently. In fact, the number of BNPL users in the US has grown by more than 300 percent per year since 2018, reaching 45 million active users in 2021 who are spending more than $20.8 billion . Without the right identity verification and fraud mitigation tools in place, fraudsters will take advantage of some BNPL companies and consumers in 2022. Experian predicts BNPL lenders will see an uptick in two types of fraud: identity theft and synthetic identity fraud, when a fraudster uses a combination of real and fake information to create an entirely new identity. This could result in significant losses for BNPL lenders. 2. Beware of Cryptocurrency Scams – Digital currencies, such as cryptocurrency, have become more conventional and scammers have caught on quickly. According to the FTC, investment cryptocurrency scam reports have skyrocketed, with nearly 7,000 people reporting losses totaling more than $80 million from October 2020 to March 2021 . In 2022, Experian predicts that fraudsters will set up cryptocurrency accounts to extract, store and funnel stolen funds, such as the billions of stimulus dollars that were swindled by fraudsters. 3. Double the Trouble for Ransomware Attacks – In the first six months of 2021, there was $590 million in ransomware-related activity, which exceeds the value of $416 million reported for the entirety of 2020 according to the U.S. Treasury's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network . Experian predicts that ransomware will be a significant fraud threat for companies in 2022 as fraudsters will look to not only ask for a hefty ransom to gain back control, but criminals will also steal data from the hacked company. This will not only result in companies losing sales because of the halt caused by the ransom attack, but it will also enable fraudsters to gain access and monetize stolen data such as employees’ personal information, HR records and more – leaving the company’s employees vulnerable to personal fraudulent attacks. 4. Love, Actually? – Because more consumers went on dating apps and social media to look for love during the pandemic, fraudsters saw an opportunity to create intimate, trusted relationships without the immediate need to meet in-person. The FBI found that from January 1, 2021 — July 31, 2021, the FBI Internet Crime Complaint Center received over 1,800 complaints, related to online romance scams, resulting in losses of approximately $133 million. Experian predicts that romance scams will continue to see an uptick as fraudsters take advantage of these relationships to ask for money or a “loan” to cover anything from travel costs to medical expenses. 5. Digital Elder Abuse Will Rise – According to Experian’s latest Global Insights Report, there has been a 25 percent increase in online activity since the start of Covid-19 as many, including the elderly, went online for everything from groceries to scheduling health care visits. This onslaught of digital newbies presents a new audience for fraudsters to attack. Experian predicts that consumers will get hit hard by fraudsters through social engineering (when a fraudster manipulates a person to divulge confidential or private information) and account takeover fraud (when a fraudster steals a username and password from one site to takeover other accounts). This could result in billions of dollars of losses in 2022. As a leader in fraud prevention and identity verification, Experian offers a full suite of automated tools that harness data and analytics to prevent fraud and mitigate losses. Learn more about Experian's fraud management tools.

In the early 1960s, Simon Ramo had a vision of a cashless society made possible by information and technology. This vision led to the creation of our business in North America. Ramo believed information could change the way people lived. Today, we know this to be true and continually see the ways data and technology can create enormous good in the lives of millions of consumers. While much has changed since the 1960s, Ramo’s vision holds true and continues to fuel the way we work at Experian. These principles have put consumers at the center of our business, which has forced us to think outside the box and do things differently. Let me give you an example. Until 2019, consumers had never been able to contribute information directly to their credit report. When we launched Experian Boost, we fundamentally changed the game. We put consumers in the driver’s seat and empowered them to contribute their on-time bill payments directly to their Experian credit report. By doing so, we’ve helped millions of consumers instantly improve their FICO® Score. This was a game changing move that is making a tangible difference for consumers. In fact, Experian Boost users have accessed more than $1.7 billion in credit due to improved credit scores. While we are proud of what we continue to accomplish with Experian Boost, we know financial inclusion depends on all of us doing more. On all of us doing things differently. We recently released new research in partnership with Oliver Wyman which shows 106 million Americans, or 42% of the adult population, lack access to mainstream credit because they are credit invisible, unscoreable or have a subprime credit score. Communities of color are more likely to lack access to mainstream credit, with 28% of Black and 26% of Hispanic consumers unscoreable or invisible, which is perpetuating historic disadvantage. While we have made a lot of progress in recent years by incorporating new data in decisions, as an industry, we can and must do better to ensure all consumers have access to fair and affordable credit. The old way of doing things, the old tools, will not work to ensure more consumers can access the financial services they need when they need them. The score models historically used by lenders are leaving nearly 50 million Americans behind. We need better data and better technology to help more consumers. When advanced analytics and machine learning are combined with expanded data sets as they are with Experian’s Lift Premium™ score, 96% of the population can be scored, including an estimated 65% credit invisibles and the entire conventionally unscoreable population. This is significantly greater than the 81% of consumers that can be scored by conventional scores today. Scoring 100% of Americans and expanding fair access to credit to creditworthy consumers is our goal. This is an exciting time as we are nearing a point where we can say, no matter who you are, where you live or what part of your financial journey you’re on, we can score you and help you access the financial services you need. We can’t do it on our own. Financial inclusion depends on industry adoption of these new tools and insights. As we begin a new year, I believe the financial services industry is at an inflection point. And I am hopeful. I think we can all agree it’s time for a new way of doing things and today we have the tools available to make it happen.

It’s a privilege to be recognized for a cause that’s important to so many of us at Experian.  I am honored to be awarded a bronze Stevie® Award in the “Women Helping Women – Business” category for supporting women in Decision Analytics (DA) and overseeing our employee resource groups across DA. The award specifically calls out our long-standing Accelerated Development Program (ADP), which identifies and mentors women business leaders within our organization The Stevie Award trophy is one of the world's most coveted business prizes, representing more than 60 countries.  The awards have been given to small, medium and large businesses for an array of categories since 2002. In 2018, HR Director Richard Teague and I helped launch ADP, which has identified 44 mid-career, high-potential women on the Global Decision Analytics team in a leadership training program. Around half of the women who participate have been promoted within two years. The ADP program also complements our DEI initiatives, which includes our five employee resource groups that have played a valuable connecting and our engagement our team members during both the pandemic and personal challenges. If you would like to find out more about any of the GDA DEI networks, including how you can get involved, please contact the relevant network lead: Mental Health – Chris Fletcher Disability and Neurodiversity – David Bernard LGBTQ+ – David Gallihawk Gender Network – Marika Vilen or Jen Cosgrove Race and Ethnicity – Shri Santhanam