What You Need to Know to Prevent Fraud in 2018

By Ann Davidson, Vice President of Risk Consulting

Are you wondering what type of fraud attacks you should look out for this year and what you can do to proactively get ahead of these attacks?

Fraud in 2018 will actually look a lot like fraud in 2017. These familiar fraud trends will include:

• Major data breaches
• Online phishing attacks & payment scams
• Non-chip enabled card fraud
• ACH & wire transaction fraud
• New account & new loan fraud
• Synthetic identity fraud
• Identity theft & account takeover fraud
• Mobile fraud attacks
• Internal fraud
• Card-not-present fraud

Though the types of attacks will continue from last year, there are two key circumstances that will likely amplify the amount and severity of these attacks throughout 2018:

1. More exposed records: 145.5 million U.S. records were exposed last year from the Equifax data breach alone. With that and other breaches taking place in 2017 (like Deloitte and Sonic Foods) you are looking at a consumer base that is at high risk of identity theft and fraud exposure this year.

2. More sophisticated processes: The tools and processes used by criminals to perform these attacks will likely evolve and become more sophisticated in an effort to fall below the radar and have more success in their attempts. In fact, more and more fraudsters are treating these crimes like a business with hired employees and standardized processes. 

Click to Tweet: The amount & severity of #fraud & #identitytheft will likely rise this year. Ask your #financialinstitution what they are doing to help prevent these #cybercrimes.

The good news is that no matter what these fraud attempts look like or how frequently they occur, you can step in to protect your business and consumers from these attacks. 

Below are strategies you should adopt to mitigate fraud in 2018: 

• Require multiple layers of authentication, especially on new account and loan requests.
• Educate your consumers about warning signs and prention methods.
• Network & share any fraud occurrences with peers.
• Monitor all accounts closely & frequently.
• Issue EMV/chip-enabled cards to all consumers.
• Establish breach response procedures to act quickly if an attack occurs.
• Thoughtfully balance service & security.
• Invest in breach insurance and remediation solutions, should an attack occur.
• Offer identity theft solutions that offer deep protection to your consumers
• Prioritize risk prevention among all staff, enterprise wide. 
• Train staff on ways to monitor & prevent exposures.
• Ensure your card processors & vendors have robust risk prevention tools & methods.

The bottom line is you need to ensure you have a strong risk management strategy as soon as possible, so that you and your consumers sleep soundly knowing you’re doing all you can to prevent future fraud exposures. 

Watch the recording of our webinar on Fraud in 2018: Your Guide to Mitigate Future Risks to learn more about protecting your business & account holders from fraud this year.

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