3 ways to proactively mitigate fraud

Reported fraud continues to increase in frequency, complexity, and severity. According to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) the top 5 types of scams include: Imposter scams, fake internet services, false prizes/sweepstakes, lotteries, and fraudulent mobile phone services. Due to an increase in flexible working environments, employee fraud is another type of fraud continuing to grow, as well as card not present fraud due to an increase of online transactions.

With fraud, the bad guys steal and falsely use another’s information to obtain trust, money, or more information. Fraud is happening in and out of financial institution branches through ATMs, account opening, ACH and wires, payment apps (i.e. Venmo, PayPal, Zelle etc.) and payment cards.

A scam takes place when the fraudster uses obtained trust, money, or information for the purpose of tricking the victim. A scam can be a one-time incident or an ongoing event and generally target an individual versus the financial institution. Scams change in tactic, can target a specific group, and can also be seasonal.

 

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