New member behaviors energize old fraud trends

Credit unions confront a new reality that is now shaped by changing member behaviors that are motivated by a national health and economic crisis. Thousands of non-essential brick-and-mortar shopping sites are closed for now. Credit union branches are either closed altogether or available only during limited hours. Members now opt for online and mobile channels to shop and manage their financial lives. Credit unions learn from what their member data tell them. They proactively respond with strategies and tactics to better know their members and strengthen their relationships.

Curiously, at least one law of the physical world has a parallel in the digital one. That is, for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. Just as credit unions modify their service models to adapt to changes in member behaviors, the criminally minded are stepping up their sinister efforts to steal consumers’ identities, compromise accounts, and breach merchants’ online systems and databases. These malevolent activities demand a heightened level of vigilance and deployment of data-driven fraud-fighting countermeasures.

Here are two prevalent and rising fraud trends with suggestions on what credit unions can and should do to mitigate their impact.

 

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