With the personal information of up to 143 million consumers stolen, the Equifax data breach is believed to be the worst of all time. The stolen information is personal credit bureau data that lasts a consumers’ entire lifetime. Fraudsters have Social Security numbers, addresses, drivers’ licenses, dates of birth and credit cards, all pieces of information we rely on to confirm identity. Now that information can be bought and sold many times—and used to defraud banks, credit unions and consumers for years.

Naturally, if fraudsters have so much identifying information on consumers and members, that means the foundation that banks and credit unions use to control new account fraud or application fraud is badly damaged. Fraud departments will need to change.

Impact to Fraud Departments

Expect an increase of better and well-disguised fraud attempts. Therefore, fraud prevention and mitigation tools that worked in the past may not work anymore. How should your fraud department plan for the next 12 to 24 months? Following are five practical ways fraud managers can effectively plan for in the aftermath of the breach.

 

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