In the same way, banks and financial organisations worldwide need to continuously respond and adapt.
Global events create new trends and directions for fraudsters to exploit and the recent Coronavirus pandemic is no different.
Social engineering fraud has gripped the industry in the last year and in particular, phone and business email scams seem to be resulting in the highest losses; indeed, according to the US Federal Trade Commission, 77% of fraud complaints reported by consumers in the US involved contact by phone.
In the UK, it is more commonly referred to as Authorised Push Payment (APP) fraud, and while measures have been introduced, such as the Contingent Reimbursement Model (CRM) code and Confirmation of Payee, to protect consumers and to detect and prevent scams and illicit funds transfers, more needs to be done in the UK, and globally.
The good news is banks can access and utilise increasingly sophisticated technology and expertise to meet the fraudsters’ aptitude, analysing behaviour patterns, for example, to uncover social engineering scams. Behavioural insights can be used to inform new strategies and respond to attacks in real-time where other security controls have failed.
With large losses becoming increasingly publicised, and hence reputation brought into question, the industry must respond, and it is incumbent upon all players to collaborate and be proactive around accountability and prevention.
This research paper from Finextra, in association with BioCatch, explores the recent uptick in social engineering attacks globally, and how banks can respond using the latest technology and security measures.