The discussion around my dinner table the other night centered around a recent fraud incident that affected a good friend. A $34,000 invoice came in with instructions to make a payment on an expected business transaction. Within a few seconds, the email disappeared and several minutes later another email appeared. It came from the same sender and all details appeared to be the same. The payment was made. Several weeks later, the person receives a very angry phone saying the payment was not received. Totally confused, they call the bank to verify that the payment has left the account and that the wire was received on the other side. Turns out, the first email was real and the second was a fraudulent intercept that mimicked the first one exactly except for different wire instructions. Now, their bank will not return the funds since they, as the legitimate account holder authorized the payment.
The Federal Reserve recently released a white paper on synthetic identity fraud, highlighting once again the vexing threat this trend poses to the payments industry and our economy on the whole. According to AboutFraud.com: “Synthetic fraud is the fastest growing form of identity theft in the U.S., comprising 80% of all new account fraud and 20% of all credit card losses.”
Well – maybe I’m a bit biased as I’m chair of FraudCON, but I think all who attended FraudCON 3.0 held June 27th as part of Tel Aviv Cyber Week 2019 would agree it was an amazing event. Over 800 people have registered, the hall was packed with fraud fighting professionals, and the content was truly inspiring.
We’ve written previously about the differences between behavioral analytics and behavioral biometrics and why behavioral biometrics is the better solution for identity fraud and defending against cyber threats. But as behavioral biometrics goes mainstream, it’s worth noting that emerging approaches have significant differences in how they address identity fraud, eCommerce fraud, and more.
In May 2019, the Government Accountability Office (GAO), released the report “Federal Agencies Need to Strengthen Online Identity Verification Processes.” The report has far reaching implications for digital identity standards for both the public and private sectors. In this blog we analyze the report, how it influences the private sector and how to apply a risk-based approach to meet the overhauled digital identity guidelines.
In 2017, BioCatch was recognized by Frost & Sullivan for New Product Innovation in Biometric Authentication, highlighting the company’s position in the emerging behavioral biometrics landscape and its patented Invisible Challenges™ solution, which helps identify fraudsters without jeopardizing the user experience.
