International Fraud Awareness Week, observed annually from November 12 to 18, serves as a crucial initiative aimed at raising awareness about the pervasive issue of fraud that affects individuals, businesses, and governments worldwide. This week-long campaign brings together organizations, government agencies, and individuals to collectively address the challenges posed by fraudulent activities, ranging from financial scams to cybercrimes. The overarching goal is to foster a global community that is well-informed, vigilant, and equipped to identify, prevent, and combat fraudulent practices.
As part of this initiative, industry experts contribute their insights to the ongoing dialogue surrounding fraud prevention. Commentaries from these experts provide valuable perspectives on the evolving nature of fraud, emerging threats, and innovative strategies to safeguard against deceptive practices. The collective expertise of these professionals plays a pivotal role in shaping a comprehensive understanding of the challenges posed by fraud in the contemporary landscape.
In a world increasingly interconnected by technology and global financial systems, the significance of International Fraud Awareness Week cannot be overstated. By fostering collaboration and knowledge-sharing among industry experts, this initiative plays a vital role in fortifying the defenses against fraud and promoting a safer, more secure environment for individuals and organizations alike. As we navigate the complexities of the modern era, the collective efforts during this awareness week underscore the importance of remaining vigilant and proactive in the ongoing battle against fraud.
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Peter Barker, Chief Product Officer, Ping Identity
“This International Fraud Awareness Week, businesses are reminded to be acutely aware of identity theft and breaches of customer’s personal identifiable information, especially with the continued rise of AI tools and prevalence of social media platforms. In fact, globally, consumers are most concerned about identity theft over other potential outcomes associated with having their personal information online, including financial loss or government surveillance.
As we approach the holiday season, these fears are especially heightened, with over 44% of consumers more concerned about fraud during the holiday season when shopping online than at other times of the year. That being said, 50% of consumers report that multi-factor authentication would make them feel more protected against fraud, alerting organizations to the need for more secure login methods.
Organizations that are able to implement modern authentication technologies, like passwordless and MFA solutions, will not only ensure the safety of critical data by reducing cyber risks, but will boost consumer trust, leading to increased revenue, customer satisfaction and brand loyalty.”
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Sameer Hajarnis, Senior Vice President and General Manager, Digital Agreements, OneSpan
“Fraud has escalated as digital adoption across the business landscape has increased. Given the rise of AI technology and high-value transactions conducted online, new attack vectors have come to the forefront, with sophisticated social engineering attacks and identity theft techniques like deepfakes and synthetic identities causing turmoil. To combat these fraudulent attacks, we need to look beyond legacy verification solutions to ensure the integrity of all digital interactions, transactions, and agreements, thus ultimately protecting digital identities from fraud.
Organizations need to think of authentication, fraud management, and customer experience (CX) collectively as they can have a cascading effect on the others. Given customers now expect seamless online experiences as they leverage digital-first technology like e-signatures, a comprehensive strategy that prioritizes security and customer satisfaction is key to business longevity and effectively combating the challenges posed by cybercriminals. With 51% of organizations experiencing fraud in the past few years, International Fraud Awareness Week serves as a crucial reminder about the evolving tactics employed by fraudsters and the importance of preventive measures to protect against diverse forms of fraud, including deceptive contracts.”
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David Divitt, Senior Director of Fraud Prevention & Experience, Veriff
“The fraud landscape is rapidly evolving and expanding. Consumers have lost billions of dollars to fraud, and tools such as those fueled by AI are making fraud activity more accessible to bad actors, regardless of their technical prowess. Today, fraud teams need to regularly assess threats to stay ahead of fraud patterns. Robust, trustworthy fraud protection is not a one-and-done solution and ensuring digital safety must extend far beyond International Fraud Awareness Week.
An effective fraud defense must be strong, dynamic and multi-faceted. One essential tool necessary is identity verification (IDV). The rise of deepfakes, account takeovers and phishing validates the criticality of quickly and securely verifying digital identities. Relying on legacy approaches can expose an organization to bad actors; passwords are vulnerable to data breaches, and two-factor authentication is susceptible to device compromise. It is time security leaders reevaluate and begin to modernize IDV technology. To remain competitive and secure, organizations need to adopt technology and processes that are as painless as possible for the end-user, taking a “right-friction” approach to fraud prevention, without compromising safety. Fraudsters are constantly innovating with their technology so businesses must, too. They need to stay two steps ahead and beat the bad actors at their own game.”
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Jenn Markey, VP Product Marketing, Payments & Identity, Entrust
“Fraud and cybercrime continue to escalate; the FTC reports that 2.9M fraud reports were filed in 2022, with identity theft as the top category for consumer complaints. This International Fraud Awareness Week, it’s critical for business leaders – especially those at financial institutions who are storing personal identity information (PII) and confidential, long-life data – to take the necessary steps to minimize the threat of fraud, protect consumers and secure their businesses against evolving threats.
AI-enabled deepfakes and synthetic identities represent two of the most nefarious challenges to organizations seeking to prevent fraudulent activity and comply with Know Your Customer (KYC) regulations. The most effective way to keep organizations, their employees, and customers protected from these highly realistic attack vectors is by focusing on innovations in identity verification, biometrics, and AI, which are helping enterprises fight back. Research shows consumers are ready for this change – in a recent report, 63% of respondents said they are comfortable with banks using AI for detecting fraud, budgeting, investing, and customer service (chatbots).
It’s important to understand that anti-fraud awareness and education extends far beyond just this week and all organizations should work to implement an extra layer of security while improving the customer experience at the same time.”
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Jason Kent, Hacker in Residence, Cequence Security
“International Fraud Awareness Week serves as a timely reminder of the ever-evolving nature of fraud, requiring organizations to remain vigilant and informed. The exponential rise in fraudulent activities, bolstered by the widespread adoption of digital commerce, has placed an immense burden on fraud prevention teams. They find themselves locked in a relentless battle against campaigns targeting their organizations, a struggle that has far-reaching consequences. The surge in fraudulent activity has translated into increased financial losses, eroded customer trust, and a noticeable decline in brand loyalty.
From fake accounts and romance scams to phishing attacks and ransomware demands, both individuals and organizations face the threat of falling victim to fraudulent attacks. The risks are particularly heightened for banks, insurance companies, and fintech institutions, who require a robust fraud prevention solution that enables them to accurately detect fraudulent activity as it occurs – blocking unauthorized actions promptly before they cause harm to their users and their business. This will become increasingly more difficult to do with the recent advancements announced in the CFPB Dodd-Frank 1033 update from last month. Implementing a solution capable of preventing fraud in real-time empowers fraud mitigation teams to take back control, enabling them to be aware of the exact moment when fraudulent transactions occur.”
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Philipp Pointner, Chief of Digital Identity at Jumio
“Fraud Awareness Week is a timely reminder of the growing threat of AI-generated identity theft tactics like deepfakes. After all, you can change your password, but not your biometrics.
By now many of us have seen deepfakes of celebrities or influential figures online, but as hackers turn this technology into a weapon to steal identities, it’s only a matter of time before we become a target. As fraudulent AI-generated content is increasingly used to engage in identity theft, spread misinformation on major platforms and wreak havoc on businesses and their users, it is critical for businesses to deploy strategies enabling the better detection of deepfakes, including visual and audio clues to tools that can automatically spot synthetic identities and misinformation.
By staying educated and aware of the most effective strategies to deter advancing AI-enabled identity attacks, organizations can mitigate fraudulent content, and better protect users from fraud.”
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Kevin Bocek, VP of Ecosystem and Community, Venafi
“International Fraud Awareness Week presents a timely reminder of machine identity management’s pivotal role in the face of evolving tactics by attackers who exploit TLS certificates to deceive users and machines. In today’s digital landscape, where AI, machine learning, and automated systems are revolutionizing operations as well as threats, the importance of ensuring the authenticity and security of these technologies cannot be overstated.
As the FBI has warned in the past, hackers utilize TLS machine identities to manipulate users, especially on mobile devices, with services such as Let’s Encrypt making such attacks significantly easier to execute. Organizations must bear the responsibility of implementing robust machine identity management practices to develop a keen understanding of all certificates associated with their business on the internet – whether legitimate or fake. With the acceleration of AI-driven attacks, ensuring the integrity of the TLS certificates that authenticate websites to browsers and apps is increasingly vital as they become heightened targets for potential attacks.”
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