Category: Fraud

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5 Best Ways to Protect Businesses From Cyber Attacks

best practices for cyber attack fraud prevention

Businesses of all kinds have an obligation to try and protect their users. Protecting users from cyber attacks is a responsibility that every single business has to take on. Your existing and new customers need to know the best practices they can follow to stay protected. With bad actors becoming more and more creative, you need to be more vigilant and teach your customers to protect themselves from cyber-attacks. 

In this guide, we’ll outline the best 5 ways to protect users from cyber attacks. Let’s dive in.

Best Cyber Security Practices

Even the smallest of mistakes can cost you very dearly if you don’t pay attention online. There are some basic things organizations can do to protect their users and their data. If a hacker or bad actor can gain access to confidential information, it can cost your business millions of dollars. Here’s how to stay safe online:

1. Learn How to Detect Attacks

Cyber attacks can come in any shape and size. They can be in the form of phishing, ransomware, or pretexting. Out of all these attacks, social engineering attacks are the most dangerous and hardest to figure out. Organizations should have the ability to detect them as soon as possible. 

Every single member of your organization should learn how to detect social engineering attacks. Anyone who clicks on the wrong link or sends personal information to the wrong person, it’s an invitation to a data breach. 

Here are some of the most common methods used by bad actors during social engineering attacks:

  • Requests for the user or shared credentials
  • Request for financial or contractual information
  • Requests for user personal information
  • Unusual or suspicious links and files
  • Unusual or suspicious phone calls

2. Educate Users about Devices

To protect your users from cyber attacks, you need to educate them on some things. It helps in ensuring that every member of your organization is aware of the best practices to protect themselves. Businesses should also hold seminars after employee onboarding to prevent cyber attacks.

Whenever your employees leave their desks, they should always lock their devices. Also, setting up personal passwords goes a long way in fraud prevention. You should educate users and refrain from using third-party apps that aren’t trusted.

3. Multi-Factor Authentication and Password Management

If you’re storing user data, and your users can log in to your website, then it’s essential to use multi-factor authentication methods. While a password helps in protecting you, MFA just adds another layer of security for the users and the businesses.

Make sure that all the employees and users change the default passwords as this is one of the biggest ways people get exploited. Also, never ever share passwords. MFA is a key to securing your devices and systems, as it forces the user to verify their identity. As the user has to provide a unique numerical code after entering the username-password, it prevents the risk of credential stealing.

4. Keep Up With Software and Hardware Practices

Software and hardware physical security practices can help ensure that you’re doing all that you can to keep your business secure. It can be anything, from using built-in defense functions or regularly updating software and hardware.

Choosing systems with built-in layers of defense boosts your organization’s cybersecurity the minute they’re running. There are endless solutions containing built-in security functions including data encryption and endpoint protection, these obstacles make it harder for bad actors to access your systems.

When it comes to software updates, most businesses and users ignore their importance. Prioritize updating the software and firmware on all the devices, as this allows them to function at an ideal level.

5. Choose the Ideal Technology

Finding a technology provider that offers all the solutions you need, all the while operating while being transparent isn’t easy. It may take some time to decide which vendor is the right fit for your business. 

Most vendors offer their customer hardening guides, these guides teach users how to keep their devices secure.

Choosing the ideal technology is crucial to a strong cybersecurity strategy. This also includes using the right technology for customer onboarding. DIRO online document verification technology can boost the onboarding process and eliminate the risk of fraud.

When you onboard the right type of users, you automatically reduce the risk of data breaches, account takeover fraud, and so much more.

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Steps Payment Gateway Can Take to Detect and Prevent Online Fraud?

payment gateway fraud prevention

When you have started your online business, you wouldn’t consider online fraud as a challenge when you’re processing less than 10 transactions a day. However, when your business and the number of transactions increase, you need to be more careful. Statistics state that in 2018, US merchants lost an estimated $6.4 billion in payments card fraud. Small businesses especially face the highest number of frauds and an estimate of $155,000 per year.

Credit card processors offer merchants basic security measures to reduce the risks of credit card fraud. Although some merchants don’t offer seller protection, including PayPal, this is the case in the case of digital goods. You can decide which payment gateway to use. This also tells how your business will be protected in case of fraud transactions.

With the digital goods and services landscape on a boom, businesses of all sizes need to re-evaluate their position and tools when it comes to fraud management. In this article, we will take a look at the most effective techniques when it comes to tackling card payment fraud.

How to Prevent Payment Gateway Fraud?

1. Address Verification Solution

Address verification solutions are used to detect online fraud. When customers purchase items, they have to provide their billing address and ZIP code and address verification solutions check whether this address is real or not. Part of a Card-not-present transaction, the payment gateway can send a request for user verification.’

2. Card Verification Value (CVV)

The CVV or Card Verification Value is a 3 or 4-digit code on credit cards. The code should never be stored on a merchant’s database. A CVV filter acts as an added security layer, allowing only the card owner to use the card. If an order is placed on the website and the CVV doesn’t match, the transaction should not go through. While making a CNP transaction (online, email, or telephone orders), merchants get the required information from the customers.

3. Device Identification

Device identification analyzes the computer instead of the person who’s visiting the website. It verifies the internet service, and browser to see if the transaction has to be approved. All the devices (phones, computers, tablets, etc) have a unique fingerprint, similar to human fingerprints. 

Fraudsters are unable to impersonate a computer’s unique identity, making it a viable option for your business against online payment fraud.

4. Flag Large Transactions

With stolen card information, fraudsters will take a shot at making transactions before the card is blocked. This would be harmful to your business where you’ll have to take on the cost of allowing fraudulent transactions to take place. Constant instances of fraud can lead to payment processors terminating your processing account.

You can easily limit the number of large transactions by specifying a flat amount. In addition to this, you can limit the number of failed transactions.

5. Payer Authentication (3-D Secure)

Payer authentication, sometimes called Verified by Visa (VeB) and MasterCard SecureCode, is a cardholder authentication measure that secures all online transactions for customers. This method allows cardholders to create a PIN that can be used during checkout. By using payer authentication, merchants are offered chargeback protection and lower interchange rates. 

This is one of the most sought-out fraud prevention tools that businesses rely on. 

6. High-Risk Countries

If you’re sending products overseas, then you need to exercise greater caution for these orders. Pay more attention to orders that come from high-risk countries. Customers in these countries need to be verified by the countries before the transactions are processed. 

According to the online fraud guide, some of the highest-risk countries include Israel, Malaysia, Egypt, Pakistan, Ukraine, Russia, Bulgaria, Romania, Lithuania, Nigeria, and Yugoslavia.

7. Risk Scoring

Risk scoring tools are based on statistical models designed to recognize fraudulent transactions based on a number of rules and regulations. When a payment is done on your website, the risk scoring tools will indicate the probability of the transactions being fraudulent. A higher probability of a transaction being fraudulent means that you should verify the transaction.

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How to Prevent Fraud Proactively?

how to prevent fraud in fintech

Today’s topic is related to the three important and effective ways to prevent the risk of fraud with a proactive approach. In order to use anti-fraud strategies, you need to be more alert and look around the corners to detect such happenings before they happen.

Since the rise of Covid-19, Fintech companies and other financial services have faced challenges to prevent fraud. 

According to the Aiteo Group, from 2018 to 2020, the cases of mobile and online fraud losses increased. And as per 27% of financial institutions’ surveys, online losses were more than 10%, and mobile losses were also over 10%. So, how can financial institutions and Fintech companies prevent such losses? 

The best way to prevent fraud is to build a proactive approach against the growing number of frauds. Here’s how FinTechs can prevent fraud proactively.

3 Key Elements to Prevent Proactive Frauds in Fintech:

1. Digital and Physical Identity Elements for Accurate Risk Assessment

According to Kount, it is important to have 100% verified documents of each user and customer to prevent fraud. Financial institutions and companies need to focus on verifying all the users’ documents with the help of digital and physical identity elements to ensure the accuracy of the documents. This helps in preventing the use of fake and stolen documents during onboarding.

When we talk about physical identity, we include social security numbers, payroll information, credit history, phone number, addresses, and tax IDs. And, when we talk about digital identity elements, we include account modification information, email addresses, login behavior, device information, payment information, account creations, and geolocation. The physical and digital elements are helpful for Fintech companies. Even financial institutions use digital ID data to get a complete profile of their users to minimize the risk of fraud.

2. Adaptive Authentication for Minimal Friction Customer Login Experiences

Adaptive authentication is an important step to verify a user’s identity to be able to trust the user or customer.  

If a user or customer is doubtful about their identity, then the financial institutions and banks can step up for multi-factor authentication. With the help of multifactor authentication (MFA), it will be easier to determine a user’s trust based on their transaction frequency, billing address, geolocation, IP address, a device used, and account age. 

According to the financial surveys, the account takeover fraud rates are over 10%, which is more than before the pandemic.

The two key benefits of using adaptive authentication are that it helps prevent account takeover attacks, and the second is that it helps provide a smooth login experience for returning and new customers. Adaptive authentication is valuable for banks and Fintech companies to expand their customer base with less friction and risk of fraud. 

According to Benjamin Teal, Fintech and AltFi Industry Expert for Equifax, “As we start to see younger consumers seek financial services, fraud mitigation strategies need to be refined to incorporate evolving consumer behavior. “

He further said, “We know that younger consumers are digitally native and have fewer obligations requiring them to remain in one place. As a result, they engage in behavior that looks very different to older consumers. Sophisticated strategies will factor in these generational differences and create experiences that lead to higher conversion while keeping bad actors out.”

3. Deep Data Insights to Determine Identity Trust

Financial institutions and FinTech companies need more than just payment-related data to uncover identity theft issues. Identity theft can appear in different stages during the account creation process, application, and payment event, and log in. And, to prevent the risk of identity theft, the FinTech companies and financial institutions need relevant data to decide if the customer is genuine or not.  

In the recent webinar, O’Neill, the Enterprise Account Executive for Kount, said, “It’s not necessarily enough to look at payments data to compete against some of the largest banks and card brands, which have massive data networks. “

O’Neill further said, “When it comes to payments-related data, it’s really easy for big banks to say they know what a normal payment looks like and therefore know what an abnormal payment looks like. And that’s true, but you need more than that to make the best decisions.”

There are other fraud indicators like email addresses, geolocation, country codes, transaction amounts, and BINs.  

And to prevent the fraud related to these indicators, it is better to use a global network of fraud and trust-related signals. 

Once the payment data is combined with all the above elements, you can get a more accurate image to prevent proactive fraud in Fintech.

DIRO for Proactive Fraud Prevention

  1. DIRO’s document verification technology is great for Fintech companies and financial institutes for the instant verification of documents from the original source.
  2. With the help of DIRO’s document verification, the companies can save time and resources.
  3. Manual verification of data can lead to various errors, and the chances are high that manual a person could not identify real or fake documents.
  4. With the help of DIROs, you can get 100% verified documents from the sources, which means no chance of fraud and fake document threats that can lead to huge losses if not identified at the time.
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Tips to Protect your Business from Scammers

protect businesses from scammers

Businesses of all kinds face various internal and external attacks that can harm the businesses financially and in other ways. False invoices, money laundering, and phishing attempts are some of the most common examples of fraud. With the whole world forced to shift toward digital transformation, online scams aimed at businesses are getting more sophisticated. 

According to industry experts, every second an online merchant becomes a victim of some kind of fraud. What’s even worse is that most businesses take months to notice the fraud. Unfortunately, most businesses don’t know about the best practices they can use to enhance security and keep their businesses protected from fraudsters.

Practices to Prevent Fraud for Businesses

1. Know Your Customer

The COVID-19 pandemic was the primary cause of the surge in the rate of unemployment. Identity fraud costs reached up to $43 bn in 2020 out of the total fraud losses of $56 bn. 

Know Your Customer compliance program is a vital part of running an online business. Businesses are legally obligated to perform customer due diligence (CDD) checks to verify the identity of the customers to future-proof themselves from financial fraud. 

By building successful and efficient digital compliance programs, businesses can mitigate the risk of fraud all the while improving the customer experience during onboarding. The exact type of risk management solutions depends on the business type, but generally, they’re needed to identify and assess the threat a customer can pose to their business. According to industry experts, businesses should have automated checks in place for customers to eliminate the risk of fraud from the early stages.

2. Chargeback Fraud

Another common type of fraud that businesses have had to face since the rise of digital business operations is chargeback fraud. It happens when a consumer makes a purchase online using their card and then disputes the charge with the bank, and requests a chargeback from the bank even after getting the product or services they ordered.

Businesses operating in the industries like eCommerce, online dating, online gaming, and other purely online businesses tend to suffer from chargebacks and transaction fees whenever they onboard new customers. Although, businesses can reduce the risk of fraud by identifying the common patterns. 

3. Utilize Multiple Solutions

As there are so many areas where a company can be susceptible to attacks, it is vital to use a combination of digital defensive solutions, including:

  • Online ID verification
  • Online document verification
  • Continuous customer monitoring
  • Real-time transaction monitoring

One simple solution isn’t enough to keep the sophisticated types of fraud at bay, businesses need a combination of solutions for fraud detection and prevention.

4. Machine Learning Solutions

Machine learning solutions can be utilized by businesses regardless of the industry and business type. Firms that don’t have the resources to manage huge teams for customer verification can use machine learning solutions for customer verification and fraud detection. 

Machine learning can learn from huge data sources and detect normal payment patterns and detect suspicious transactions right away. Best algorithms can also identify fraudulent transactions on more than 50 different parameters.

DIRO for Fraud Detection & Prevention

Businesses often face fraud that revolves around fake and forged documents and identities. DIRO’s online business verification software helps businesses in detecting and prevent fraud in the early stages. DIRO can verify documents instantly and provide stronger proof of verification backed by verifiable credentials. By integrating DIRO into their solutions, businesses can easily improve fraud detection and prevention techniques.

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Best Practices and Strategies for Fraud Prevention

best practices for fraud prevention

With global fraud rising beyond control, it’s vital that organizations implement effective fraud prevention policies and procedures that provide security while ensuring a quality customer experience. With the best practices for fraud prevention, businesses can onboard customers quickly and seamlessly.

In the year 2019, the loss because of identity fraud in the U.S was estimated at $16.9 billion. There are more than 40 types of fraud, and businesses need to figure out which type of fraud can affect their business the most and build strategies for fraud prevention accordingly.

The threat of cybercrime is increasing, with the annual cost to the global economy from cybercrime estimated to reach $6 trillion by 2021. Countless online threats pose a significant risk of fraud for businesses. Cybercrime can also break down the internal compliance process, or it can weaken control systems that can detect illicit activities. Top fraud prevention and detection strategies can even help in picking out the best fraud prevention technologies. 

Understanding the threats and the tactics used by fraudsters to create new fraud opportunities is important for the development of the best practices for fraud prevention.

Types of Online Fraud

Fraud detection is a huge problem for businesses because fraudsters are constantly innovating to keep tricking businesses. To keep up, strategies for fraud protection must also innovate to stay one step ahead.

Below are just some of the most common online fraud schemes that organizations should consider as part of their fraud prevention strategies.

1. New Account Fraud

New account fraud usually happens within 90 days of opening a new account. New account fraud is often referred to as application fraud or account origination fraud. As fraud happens so close to when the account was opened, the main purpose of the account was to commit fraud such as money laundering.

For businesses, new account fraud can be extremely dangerous as there’s no history with an existing business and no history of trust. The initial activities in the account may be small but they are often to cover future acts of fraud.

2. Card-Not-Present Fraud 

With the financial industry moving towards digital transformation, card-not-present fraud is something businesses would want to keep track of. There are huge risks of CNP fraud and the merchant is liable for any of the costs incurred during the fraud. 

To mitigate CNP fraud, businesses need effective fraud prevention strategies. By understanding the techniques that fraudsters use and the techniques available, you can develop and operate tactics that mitigate costs while being consumer-friendly.

Businesses should only rely on merchants that meet the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI). The PCI is an industry-standard for payment organizations to develop standards for payment data security.

3. Identity Fraud

Identity fraud is when a person assumes the identity of another person without authorization to deceive or defraud someone. 

With most of our lives going digital, fraudsters have no limit to the means of acquiring personally identifiable information (PII). Also, the constant rise in data breaches is making it easier for fraudsters to acquire information that they can use to assume identities. 

The data stolen from data breaches can be brought for as low as $4 on the dark web. In upcoming years, the risk of ID fraud will grow even bigger for businesses with synthetic identity fraud.

Synthetic identity fraud (SIF) is a new and more dangerous type of ID fraud where fraudsters combine real PII with some fake ID data to create a completely new identity. One example of what comprises a fake identity is one that contains a real social security number along with fake addresses and other synthetic data points. Fraudsters can then use synthetic identities to get a driving license, credit cards, open bank accounts, and so on.

Managing FinTech Fraud: Bank-FinTech Partnerships for Better Fraud Prevention

Banks have to fight fraud from all directions and recently the situation is worsening. When a bank partners with a FinTech in a Banking-as-a-Service (BaaS) model, it mitigates risks by placing the responsibility for fraud losses onto FinTech. However, since the economics of the bank and FinTech are linked, it is in the bank’s interest to ensure that controls are in place to help FinTech partners fight fraud while protecting the bottom line.

Additionally, most frauds are financial fraud that requires assessment and sending of suspicious activity reports to the relevant regulatory bodies. This is the reason banks have to be extremely careful while choosing a FinTech to partner with. In this article, we’ll be outlining the risk a FinTech faces while detecting fraud and is there any reason how FinTechs can work together to protect their businesses.

Common Risks to FinTechs

In 2020, the number of fraud cases in that financial sector surged as more people went online for their banking needs. According to industry reports, over $1 trillion was lost globally to cybercrime in 2020. Fraudsters recently have been focusing on the FinTech industry. FinTechs are slowly changing the industry tides by developing cutting-edge technologies to detect and prevent fraud. FinTechs are extremely attractive to consumers, because of the digital environment, low entry bar, mobile-first security and so much more. These are the same reasons why FinTechs are extremely attractive fraudsters within days of launch. 

FinTechs that offer financial services will have to prepare for fraud and will struggle to survive with precious capital to cover the losses. FinTechs with traditional fraud prevention methods like CDD is vulnerable to attack. As FinTechs become a vital part of the financial industry, the risks will keep growing as consumers become more and more familiar with online banking.

Type of Fraud FinTechs Go Through

With the wave of digital transformation, online fraud has grown more than anything. The most common types of fraud include phishing, synthetic ID fraud, online account takeover fraud, and digital transaction fraud. 

1. Phishing

Phishing scams are extremely common, they rely on tricking individuals by unknowingly volunteering personal details or information that can then be used for creating fake bank accounts, and credit cards. Fraudsters who carry out phishing scams build a fraudulent website, a fake text impersonating a government or private entity.

2. Synthetic ID Fraud

Synthetic ID fraud is one of the biggest challenges for financial institutions as of now. To commit synthetic ID fraud, fraudsters combine real “personally identifiable information” and fake information to combine a whole new identity. Such as a legitimate social security number from people who don’t use their credit (child, homeless people, deceased individuals, or someone else), combining that real information with a fake address, phone number, or fake social media accounts. Then this synthetic ID is used to open bank accounts, apply for credit cards and commit more illegal activities.

The first request is obviously denied, but the first application puts that fake identity into the credit reporting system, legitimizing the fake identity. The fraudsters will keep applying for credit cards, switching markets and providers with less mature identity verification processes until the fraudster finally get their hands on credit cards. 

3. Account Takeover Fraud

One of the biggest challenges faced by FinTechs is Account Takeover Fraud, it costs the whole industry billions per year. Account takeover fraud and account opening fraud cause the most problems. More than 50% of businesses reported higher losses due to account opening and account takeover compared to any other type of fraud. 

Account takeover fraud is a situation where a fraudster takes control of a legit business account that belongs to someone else. Account opening fraud on the other hand happens whenever a fraudster opens a new account using a fake, stolen, or synthetic ID. 

4. Transaction Fraud

Transaction fraud is another common type of fraud where a stolen payment card is used to complete an illegal transaction. Since FinTechs are pretty good at completing real-time transactions, they are also at risk of running into transactional fraud. Quicker transaction times are one of the major factors that fraudsters look for in committing transactional fraud.

Transaction fraud can happen at any given time during a financial relationship. Account creation, login, and wherever money flows in and out of FinTech’s systems such as deposits, payments to merchants, withdrawals, etc.

Implementing Anti-Fraud Technologies During Account Creation

The steps for detecting and eliminating fraud should happen during all stages of a customer-business relationship. Businesses and financial institutions need to prevent bad actors from entering their systems, which can help significantly reduce fraud. 

To build the perfect anti-fraud technology & strategies to reduce fraud, businesses must use a combination of identity verification and authentication methods to deliver the ideal level of risk protection. Here are some of the most common fraud-prevention methods:

1. Identity Verification

Before a new account is opened, Identity verification technologies and procedures can detect potential fraudsters and prevent future damages. Anomalies in a person’s identity documents such as out-of-date information, mismatched data, and even the smallest red flags demand further examination. By cross-referencing multiple data points and data sources for ID checks, financial institutions can create stronger barriers for fraudsters.

While ID verification is extremely important, it shouldn’t create friction for legitimate customers. Finding the balance between a secure ID verification process and a positive customer experience is something financial institutions have to do. 

2. Biometric Authentication

Biometric authentication is another huge part of fraud detection and prevention for financial institutions. Biometric authentication authenticates a person by distinguishing biological traits to uniquely identify a person. Combining online document verification with biometric authentication provides multi-fold authentication for financial institutions. If done properly, this can help eliminate fraud while successfully maintaining a positive customer experience. 

3. MobileID Checks

Smartphones can help financial institutions prevent fraud by collecting a significant amount of ID data, including name, mobile number, address, and device information. To make a proper image of customer identity, this data can be cross-referenced with other ID data points. Mobile ID data can help financial institutions authenticate the individual, and the data collected can also help in finding potential future risks.

Collaborating With Banks for Better Fraud Prevention

As the fraudulent landscape becomes increasingly more complex, it becomes tough for banks and FinTechs to detect suspicious transactions and prevent illegal activities. Fraud prevention solutions that leverage data learning and machine learning can help FinTechs better safeguard themselves and detect fraudulent actions. 

By collaborating with banks, FinTechs can take a better approach to financial fraud prevention. Banks can bring their expertise to comply with ever-changing KYC, KYB, and AML regulations. Whereas, FinTechs can play their part and bring in much-needed technological expertise. Financial technologies such as online document verification software, online bank account verification software, and utility bill verification software tend to enhance the overall fraud detection and prevention programs. With a proper collaborative approach, FinTechs and banks (or other financial institutions) can fulfill the need for digital transformation, while ensuring a positive customer experience and preventing fraud.

Fraud Prevention Technologies for Financial Institutions

Businesses can build as many best practices for fraud prevention as they want, but without the help of the right technologies, fraudsters will find a way to sneak into the systems. By integrating technologies into the fraud prevention workflow, financial institutions can eliminate most of the major risks of fraud. 

DIRO’s online document verification service helps businesses with proof of address verification, bank account ownership verification and so much more to eliminate fraud. DIRO verifies over 7,000 document types from all over the globe instantly and provides stronger proof of authentication. By integrating DIRO into the workflow, businesses can successfully comply with AML and KYC regulations while ensuring a positive customer experience.

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Guide on Types of Cryptocurrency Fraud

Cryptocurrency Fraud

Almost everyone who wants to invest their money has looked towards cryptocurrencies at least once in the last few years. Cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, Ethereum, Solana, and a few more are taking the investment market by storm. Most people invest in cryptocurrencies with the prospect of becoming rich instantly. This leads them to risk and invest in risky or complete scams instead of actual beneficial currencies. There are several types of cryptocurrency fraud and it’s easy to become prey if you’re not careful. 

Digital currencies or cryptocurrencies aren’t backed by a central entity or any government. And yet, you can use crypto for the sale and purchase of goods and services. You can even exchange it for any conventional currency. Unlike conventional currencies like the dollar or the pound, the value of cryptocurrencies is driven solely by demand and supply. That’s why the crypto market is extremely volatile, and it can bring tons of losses for those looking to get rich quickly.

As the value of crypto has exploded, so has the amount of crypto fraud. The Federal Trade Commission received almost 7,000 complaints of cryptocurrency fraud from October 2020 to March 2021. The accumulated losses in these reported instances of fraud reached up to $80 million. 

To make sure that you can identify and prevent cryptocurrency fraud, we’ve created this guide of common types of crypto fraud. 

Common Types of Cryptocurrency Fraud

While the cryptocurrency in itself is a new scam for most people, the fraud is mostly a rehash of classic scams. Some of the most common crypto fraud are:

1. Fake Websites

Fake website scams aren’t anything new. They’re often full of fake testimonials, technical jargon, fake profiles, and reviews to trick a user. Fake website scams in crypto often promise guaranteed profits or quick earnings. Those who aren’t familiar with how crypto works end up investing and losing their money.

2. Celebrity Endorsement

A new type of scam that has emerged with crypto’s success is celebrity endorsement. Masses of the population will buy crypto if it’s promoted by a huge celebrity. A recent example of this is Elon Musk’s tweet about Dogecoin.

Con artists pose as online billionaires successful businesses or well-known celebrities to trick you into buying the currency. 

3. Pump-and-Dump

Pump and dump is another scam that came into existence with cryptocurrency. Using messaging apps or social media, crypto promoters try to promote a currency with any means necessary. Their aim is to lure investors to buy, drive up the price and then sell the stake, which then causes the value of the currency to drop. Elon Musk and Dogecoin is the primary example of this. While that can’t be categorized as a scam, it’s categorized as influencing.

4. Ponzi Schemes

Fraudsters and con artists try to sell crypto by creating the illusion of big and guaranteed profits by investing in a particular currency. Federal authorities are pursuing criminal and civil cases against one such scam known as BitConnect, which raised more than $2 billion before it was shut down. 

5. Romance Scams

Fraudsters assume the identities of someone else on social media, dating platforms, and other online channels and try to persuade someone from the opposite gender to invest in a particular currency. The FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) received more than 2,000 reports of crypto-based romance scams in 2021. The total losses from these types of scams reached $133 million in just 7 months of 2021.

6. Fake Wallet, Exchange, or Custodian

Not only individuals, but businesses also deal with several types of crypto fraud. Most of them involve a fake crypto digital wallet, exchange, or a fraudster assuming the identity of a custodian. As of now, there aren’t many solutions that can help businesses be vigilant about this type of crypto fraud.

Warning Signs about Crypto Fraud

There is some basic information that you can keep in mind while dealing with cryptocurrencies. The best way to prevent being a prey of a crypto scam is by looking out for warning signs. Here are some of the most common warning signs of crypto fraud:

  • Some unknown person sends you a text out of the blue regarding crypto investments. If they’re trying to get you to invest in particular crypto.
  • The pitch for a crypto investment claims that there’s no risk involved or promises guaranteed returns.
  • A call, text, email, or social media message claiming to be from a government entity, utility, or any other entity asking to pay bills with cryptocurrencies.

How to Prevent Crypto Fraud?

It’s becoming relatively easy for fraudsters to trick a business with fake or falsified wallet, exchange or custodian information. As a lot of businesses are becoming crypto-friendly, fraudsters are trying to trick them. 

Without the use of proper technologies, businesses can’t distinguish between a real person and a fake one. DIRO can instantly verify crypto account information within 90 seconds with automated user consent and impersonation check-in over 195 counties. 

The output is a machine-readable JSON file that is accepted as a court-admissible document in case of fraud. DIRO’s crypto verification API allows for real-time verification, thus reducing friction for legit customers and preventing fraud during the initial stages. 

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Best Fraud Prevention Tips for Digital Currencies

digital currency fraud prevention

Cryptocurrencies and digital currency trading and exchange platforms have been becoming increasingly common in recent times. For the first time, investors and crypto enthusiasts entered the market because of the sudden boom in the value of Bitcoin. As cryptocurrency’s core nature is anonymity, financial institutions are becoming increasingly aware of a rise in money laundering cases. To minimize the risk of fraud in digital currencies, financial institutions need to follow the best fraud prevention tips for digital currencies.

The nature of cryptocurrency relies on exchanging coins online or via a phone or computer. This also means that payments can be made almost instantaneously and without many legal protocols. Credit and debit cards have legal protection, this allows you to dispute a payment and get your funds back in case of fraudulent activity. With cryptocurrencies, reversing payment isn’t possible unless the exchange itself has regulations regarding it. 

With the growing interest in cryptocurrencies, the rate of money laundering fraud is also increasing. There are also a series of third-party websites that offer cryptocurrency mining opportunities. The use of these sites will boost the growth of new cryptocurrencies and provide a base of credibility for upcoming currencies.

Digital fraud is also increasingly committed by tricking crypto enthusiasts and new investors into sharing their personal details including bank statements and ID documents to make an investment or deposit into a legit business. These stolen bank details can be used to deposit money out of a person’s accounts and move it into a fraudster’s behavior. 

Digital currency fraud including growing and well-known cryptocurrencies is becoming increasingly common. Plus, fraudsters are becoming increasingly sophisticated. This is making it harder for financial institutions to detect fraud.

We’ve come up with a list of the best fraud protection tips for digital currencies that can be followed by individuals and financial institutions.

Most Popular Online Scams

1. Social Engineering

Social engineering scams involve tricking customers into sharing their personal information. There are only two types of social engineering scams that you can find online including digital currencies:

  • Baiting Scams: Baiting scams include tricking customers by offering them something. The scams usually are based on impersonating an investment professional, a representative of a legit crypto firm, or a representative of a non-existent entity. Scammers tend to offer special rewards or extra earnings to trick customers into divulging their personal information.
  • Scareware: A scareware attack involves customers being tricked by false threats and alarms. If you’ve ever visited a third-party website, you must have seen a pop-up something along the lines of “Your Device is Being Attacked”. 

2. Phishing Scams

When it comes to the cryptocurrency industry, phishing scams trick customers into providing their information regarding digital wallets. Specifically, hackers are interested in crypto wallets’ private keys. Scammers will try to take control of customer e-wallets and encourage you to disclose your password or other authentication measures. A phishing email asking you to share your information regarding digital wallets.

3. Website Cloning

More sophisticated scammers are able to create a webpage that looks exactly like the original e-wallet website. Once you try to log in to the fake website the fraudster will have access to your information. Once you pay a little more attention to the website, you’ll find some inaccuracies. These types of sites can usually be identified by differences in the URL link.

How to Prevent Digital Cryptocurrency Fraud?

As cryptocurrencies are becoming increasingly popular globally, crypto exchanges have to comply with KYC regulations and AML regulations. Customers are required to complete thorough ID verification for consumers in order to buy and sell cryptocurrencies.

Here are the best fraud prevention tips for digital currencies:

  • Familiarize yourself with all the basic fraud prevention tips offered by your crypto exchange provider.
  • Check email addresses and contact names thoroughly before conducting any activity.
  • Make sure to not share sensitive data such as personal details, passwords, and card numbers with new sites.
  • Keep on the lookout for clone websites or website URLs.
  • Don’t sign up with crypto exchanges that don’t comply with KYC or AML regulations.

If you feel like you’ve been a victim of fraud, then the first thing you need to do is report it to the nearest authority.

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Preventing Account Takeover & Transaction Fraud in eCommerce Marketplaces

eCommerce marketplaces

eCommerce marketplaces and their use during and post-pandemic have grown significantly. More than 150 million people used online shopping for the first time during the COVID-19 pandemic. Also fraud increases regarding online fraud, organizations are losing $4.5 million per year as a result of online transaction fraud. 

Consumers put their trust in companies, online marketplaces, and apps whose services they choose to use. Online services such as rideshares, vacation rentals, P2P payment platforms, delivery services, and more. As the rate of fraud rises, companies that use ineffective or weak identity proofing measures will find themselves facing financial losses, loss of brand reputation, and regulatory fines. In some cases, they might also be endangering their customers, if they have unauthorized drivers and couriers with stolen identifications. Fraudsters use fake documents as they may not be eligible for employment. It may take a long time since that kind of fraud is detected by the eCommerce marketplace.

Growing Threats for eCommerce Marketplace

Trust is the primary factor in any business building a long-lasting relationship. Especially when a company operates globally and when they want to build a loyal customer base. With the rapid acceleration of digital shopping and transactions comes a growing fraud landscape. With a sudden rise of people wanting to transact online, marketplaces and apps need to have the ideal strategies in place to protect themselves and customers from fraudulent activities.

There are numerous fraud types that fraudsters use. As the industry picks up after the global pandemic, marketplaces and apps are finding that their customers are being targeted. Without ideal risk mitigation or comprehensive identity proofing strategies, companies may find themselves facing the following:

  • Unverified Vendors, Hosts & Drivers: Vendors, hosts, and drivers who use false/stolen documents and other fake ID techniques to exploit both the platform and consumers for monetary gain.
  • Falsified Listings & Fake Accounts: Unauthorized vendors that create a fake account and publish fake listings and product reviews is another threat faced by eCommerce marketplaces. 
  • Buy Now, Pay Later Muling: consumers either for themselves or on behalf of others use a payment service when purchasing a product or service while planning not to pay for the services. It is also known as chargeback fraud, consumers will make a purchase but later claim that their transaction was unauthorized. Thus, merchants have to issue a refund without getting the product back.
  •  Card-not-present (CNP) Fraud: As online shopping increases, customers can’t provide a credit card directly to the merchant. That’s why fraudsters can use stolen credit card information to make unauthorized transactions. And in most cases, card owners are unaware of being compromised. 
  • P2P Payment Scams: online peer-to-peer payments for products and services that go through bank portals give users a false sense of security. In a lot of cases, this ends up being a scam where people are defrauded and unable to receive protections or refunds from the banks. 

These types of fraud happen when large eCommerce fraud with a huge customer base leverage minimal ID verification services. Being unable to monitor transactions constantly for consumers, partners, and contractors increases the risk of fraud. By not focusing on establishing trust, firms often find themselves with serious monetary, reputational, and security issues.

Building Trust Without Hurting Customer Experience

Organizations that want to build and maintain trust with their vendors and consumers need to have a multifold approach to the detection, and prevention of fraud. Using bad technological solutions or improper regulations can result in noncompliance and friction during customer onboarding. Also, constant fraud leads to higher operational costs and also hurts brand reputation.

Fraudsters use similar tactics against eCommerce platforms that they do for financial institutions. Marketplaces and apps are later seeing significant growth in different types of fraud. According to a report, account takeover fraud grew by 54% in 2020. Identity-related fraud for financial institutions grew by 69% for eCommerce in mid-to-large size retailers.

By following up with Anti-money laundering (AML) compliance, companies will have to follow KYC for customer verification. eCommerce marketplaces also have to follow KYB compliance for detecting and preventing vendor-related fraud. By following all the compliances, eCommerce marketplaces, and apps will be able to verify the identities of vendors and consumers alike effectively. This also improves customer experience, prevents fraud, and ensures happy and loyal customers.

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20 Internal Controls Methods That Businesses Can Use for Fraud Detection and Prevention

detecting fraud

Businesses all over the world lose billions of dollars to internal and external fraud. Unfortunately, this kind of fraud is easily preventable with a little bit of strategy and reinforced structures. According to a survey conducted in 2018 by the “Association of Finance Professionals (AFP) Payments Fraud and Control Survey” 78 percent of businesses were a victim of payment fraud in 2017. 

What’s even more concerning is that only 47% of those organizations were able to uncover the fraud in less than 2 weeks. There are a lot of steps to follow to be able to detect and prevent fraud. Streamlining data management, building a comprehensive checklist for month-end close, time spent on documenting and implementing strong internal controls, eliminating redundancies, and so on.

It is important for businesses to build a strong checklist to prevent themselves from internal and external fraud.

Top 20 Internal Controls for Businesses

1. The company’s tone and how fraud tolerant a firm is should be well communicated throughout the organization. If the employees understand how strict the fraud prevention policy is, the chances of internal fraud will reduce dramatically. 

2. Firms need to make sure that all employees must comply with a code of conduct. Employees should also be aware of the consequences if they don’t comply with internal policies. 

3. A Segregation of Duties policy needs to be established throughout the organization.

4. The Delegation of Authority policy should be set in place for all organizational expenses and commitments.

5. Monthly or quarterly customer monitoring checks are vital to keep track of suspicious activities and monitor fraudulent transactions. 

6. System Access Controls have to be reviewed by organizations on a monthly basis. If that’s not possible, then they should happen after a system upgrade or organizational change.

7. The compliance managers are responsible for implementing effective internal controls in all sectors of the company. This includes identifying, assessing, and managing the risk of fraud from internal and external sources.

8. All representations and assertions relating to internal controls have to be supported with proper documentation. 

9. Costs and expenses of all the operating units must be maintained under budgetary controls. Comparing actual expenses to be budgeted amounts must happen regularly. 

10. All operating units have to develop a system of internal controls to make sure the assets and the records of the company are protected from loss, destruction, theft, or illegal access to data. 

11. Critical transactions happening inside the business process have to be traceable, authorized, authenticated, have integrity, and should be retained in accordance with established policy.

12. To ensure the reduction of fraud, background checks have to be done for all the employees and customers. 

13. All the business records must be maintained and retained in accordance with the firm’s policy. 

14. The business’s network and information program and corporate policy must be followed perfectly. Employees, merchants, and third-party payment providers must refrain from disclosing sensitive information.

15. All computer systems and software applications that can impact the operations of a business process must have the adequacy of their internal controls verified before the implementation. Unverified systems and software can cause a lot of fraud. 

16. Contracts or documents that bind the organization to any obligation can be executed by purchasing personnel or individuals duly authorized under the organization’s delegation of authority policy. The legal team should be able to review and approve all the contracts and legally binding documents. 

17. All suppliers must be verified before they become a part of the business. The verification process includes:

  • Requires a W-9
  • Performing a TIN matching
  • Compliance screening
  • Address and phone verification

18. All payments over a certain amount should be reviewed and approved. Firms should pay special attention to international payments and wire transfers.

19. All the intercompany payments that are sent and received should be verified on a monthly basis. 

20. A physical inventory process should be set in place to keep track of fixed assets. A physical inventory and counting process should be established for businesses that manufacture and supply the products. 

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What Businesses Should know about ID Fraud

identity fraud for business

It’s pretty clear now that identity fraud isn’t going anywhere, the threat of identity fraud is evolving. In the last couple of years, the number of identity fraud has grown steadily. The overall cost of identity fraud is $42 billion for businesses.

Now that the pandemic has adversely affected businesses, the threat of identity fraud seems even bigger now. With most businesses pushing towards digital transformation, the types of identity fraud are going to get bigger. Weak and inefficient digital systems developed and used by financial institutions act as a magnet for fraudsters. Businesses need to be prepared for upcoming identity fraud trends.

6 Things to Know About Identity Fraud

Businesses and financial institutions that don’t follow the common identity fraud trends. Here’s all a business should know to protect themselves against evolving fraud.

1. Fraudsters Will Continue to Develop New Methods

As more and more customers are relying on online solutions because of the pandemic, the environment is also inviting fraudsters. 

Documents and biometric IDs that are presented by customers manually can’t just happen in a digital environment. It is almost impossible to check the signs of manipulation and identity fraud is more scalable online. This works in the favor of fraudsters.

Bad actors are using sophisticated methods for document fraud. In the upcoming years, there will be an increase in fraud documents and fake ID cards. That shows that fraud techniques are getting more sophisticated and the pandemic has given birth to first-time fraudsters in need of financial help. 

Businesses in this digital environment face attacks from two fronts. First-time fraudsters with low-level fraud and unsophisticated techniques and experienced fraudsters with evolving types of fraud with the use of sophisticated techniques.

2. Biometric Fraud Will Soon Evolve

As of right now, businesses use AI and machine learning solutions that leverage biometric data for verifying customer identities. Current biometric fraud is simple and easy to detect using intelligent solutions. But deep fakes will make things more challenging.

Deepfakes are digital media, such as videos in which a person’s existing video/photo can be replaced by someone else’s. While this technique is mostly used by social media users to make entertaining videos. However, this can also be used for malicious activities like bypassing the ID verification systems. Sophisticated efforts like these are less common in the real world as they take up too much time and money.

Over time, with the improvement of technology, the costs will come down and biometric fraud will evolve and be hard to detect by businesses.

3. Synthetic ID Fraud Will Rise

Synthetic identity fraud is one of the biggest threats, it combines stolen information with fake details like names and addresses to create a completely new identity. Fraudsters can then use this identity to apply for loans, credit cards, and more. 

In recent years, synthetic fraud has grown a lot. Data breaches in the past few years have worked as a helping hand for synthetic ID fraud. The hack of the US Census is one such example. Because of the amount of stolen customer data available online, credit and database checks won’t be good enough for verifying identity. Businesses will need to consider other methods of verification like third-party technologies.

4. Coercion Attacks will Become a Huge Concern

Coercion attacks are a huge threat for businesses as they don’t need any technical experience and are difficult to detect. Instead of stealing an identity, fraudsters persuade victims into opening legal accounts and use them for illicit activities. 

To identify coercion attacks, businesses need to verify the intent of account opening which is almost impossible for humans. One sign of coercion attack is if someone else is in the shot when a biometric check is being completed, however, that’s still too big of a stretch. Businesses and ID providers need to be aware of this undetectable fraud.

5. Cash Incentives Will Continue to Increase Fraud

It seems like a thing of the past but frauds promising cash incentives continue to affect businesses. Fraudsters take advantage of a marketing campaign that promotes cash incentives. They do so by targeting bonus promotions while opening a new account, referral bonuses, or extreme currency fluctuations. Fraudsters open several accounts using an original identity but with some different details like email address and address and so on. They open the account and get the monetary perks.

6. Financial Industry is Always the Biggest Target

Out of all the industries, the financial industry was impacted the most by online fraud. The financial industry is always at risk of ID fraud, but suspicious behavior has become harder to catch because of changes in spending habits. Businesses are having trouble being able to distinguish between legit and fake users. To successfully onboard customers, businesses need proper bank account verification software that facilitates security and agility.

This is one of the main reasons why businesses are focusing more on transforming their channels. Most businesses combine machine learning with biometric verification instead of username and password. This is one method that can help in verifying between legit users and bad actors.