Payment fraud is a huge problem for eCommerce and online retail businesses. Even among the world’s biggest companies, there are horror stories about payment security problems like credit card data theft and financial fraud: Cyberthreats like carding attacks are responsible for most modern large-scale data theft. Payment fraud losses cost companies more than $33 billion in 2021 — and this is expected to rise to more than $40 billion by 2027.

A San Francisco-based bank recently disclosed the results of a payment fraud investigation that uncovered ATM skimming attempts at the bank’s terminals across the United States. Fraudsters installed ATM skimming devices in several branches and used them to skim customer account information. The bank was understandably concerned that the stolen data would be used to create fake debit cards and attempt cash withdrawals.

As per the news reports published MTN’s Mobile Money Bank suffers N22B Fraud, Drags 18 Banks to court for recovery The newly licensed Mobile Money Payment Service Bank Limited (MOMO PSB) a banking subsidiary of MTN Communications Limited has in less than a month operation suffered a massive fraud worth over N22 billion on its network. The suspicious transfers were due to the fact that the MoMo PSB suffered system exploitation which led to the said debits.

A medical lab scientist landed in Johannesburg on Saturday, February 5th, for his two-week assignment. Soon after landing, family and friends called him to say that some people were calling and texting them, looking for him. Those people were hackers, who had got hold of his contacts. The scientist didn’t pay much attention to it, but two days later he received a message from his telecom company that they had received a SIM card swap request from him, which he, of course, never made.

This blog is a part of our new series 5 Strategies for Building Resilience to Financial Crimes and Cyber Attacks in 2022. Access to the right data at the right time is the foundation of an efficient payment fraud prevention strategy. At INETCO, we like to say that not all insights are created equal: if you are missing some key pieces of the puzzle you won’t get a clear picture of the threat landscape.

The UK’s National Health Service (NHS) has warned the public about a spate of fake messages, sent out as SMS text messages, fraudulently telling recipients that they have been exposed to the Omicron variant of COVID-19. In a tweet, the NHS said that it had seen reports of text messages that claimed to come from the NHS, telling recipients that they had been in close contact with someone who had a confirmed COVID-19 infection, and that they should order a testing kit.

Grooming techniques used in various frauds are getting more common and more elaborate. Fraudsters are coming up with narratives that involve complicated lies and may have different stages, depending on the type of fraud. Often, different actors are brought into the story. These actors also lie to the victim, in order to support the narrative. The purpose of expanding the fraud in this way is to groom the victim to dismiss their doubts or concerns and comply with requests.

Apple says that it protected many millions of users from being defrauded to the tune of nearly $1.5 billion dollars in the last year, by policing its official App Store. According to a newly published report by Apple, over 1.6 million risky and untrustworthy apps and app updates were stopped in their tracks due to the company’s fraud prevention analysis.

Most companies are unconcerned about credit card theft until it happens to them. If you sell online or by e-mail, your company is more likely to go bankrupt owing to fraudulent credit card orders. Given the increased reliance on plastic money, credit card theft is extremely damaging. Even consumers, fail to take basic precautions to avoid credit card theft.

This blog is a part of our new series 5 Strategies for Building Resilience to Financial Crimes and Cyber Attacks in 2022. In the last few years, we have all observed an increase in the sophistication of cyber-enabled attacks and financial crimes. This coincided with intensified focus on digital banking by financial institutions and increased volumes of online transactions.