Account opening fraud is one of the fastest growing cyber threats today. The sheer volume of digital channel usage by consumers brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated the problem and has allowed fraudsters to hide in plain sight. In fact, 85% of financial institutions report experiencing fraud in the account opening process.

This type of fraud is especially hard to detect in the case of new customers where no prior profile of the applicant exists. Traditional controls are leaving gaps, requiring a deeper level of insight to weed out criminals without impacting good customers. As John Tolbert, Lead Analyst at KuppingerCole notes, behavioral biometrics “helps reduce instances of account opening fraud, which is particularly challenging to detect when the user is a new user and doesn’t have a historical digital footprint with the organization."

Cybercriminals have very clear patterns of behavior that BioCatch can quickly spot. During the digital account opening process, behaviors such as typing speed, swipe patterns, every click of the mouse, and the way you hold your device tells a story – one of criminal activity or genuine user behavior. There is one behavior that BioCatch found is common in nearly two out of every three cases of account opening fraud. Can you guess what it is? Scroll through the infographic below to find out the answer.