A multilayered approach provides better protection

Financial fraud is on the rise and shows little sign of slowing down. New fraud opportunities are constantly being created by the rapid increase of digital interactions and the influx of users connecting online with merchants and financial institutions.

Identity theft and losses from account takeover continue to plague consumers and financial institutions as fraud schemes become more sophisticated. The results of a recent survey by Aite-Novarica Group, “U.S. Identity Theft: Adapting and Evolving,” showed that younger consumers, especially, continue to be victimized by identity theft. And a report by Javelin Strategy & Research, “Rising Threats: How Identity Fraud Affects the Digital Channel,” revealed that account takeover is now an $11 billion problem and the fastest growing form of fraud. This is due, in large part, to the rapid increase of digital interactions for everything from credit card transactions to P2P payments and rewards points.

Account takeover can be difficult to detect. Unlike card fraud, where the accountholder might quickly notice suspicious purchases and charges, an account-takeover attack can go undetected for an extended period, while criminals change login and contact information to delay the time it takes for the real accountholder to realize they were compromised.

Defending financial institutions and consumers

What's a financial institution to do in the face of this growing threat? When fraud occurs, financial losses must be addressed, and recovery attempts are costly and time consuming. Consumer confidence declines – but requiring multiple and repeated authentication steps adds more friction to online interactions. 

The best defense is to implement a multilayered, comprehensive plan, including:

• Monitor at the consumer level – Look for anomalies in behavior on website and mobile logins, calls, purchases and wire transfers, for example
• Consumer education – Remind consumers of common examples of emotional tactics and techniques
• Stronger authentication – Continuously expand and invest in robust authentication strategies throughout the account life cycle
• Targeted friction – Reserve multifactor verification for higher-risk activity, making it more difficult and time consuming for fraudsters to launch account takeover attacks, which will deter future attempts
• Alerts – Encourage consumers to receive notifications on account changes or transactions and establish portfolio monitoring across channels

 

Connecting the dots

Stronger authentication requires advanced technology that can pinpoint anomalies in consumer behaviors by understanding their patterns. 

 

No two financial consumers act the same way. People do different things, in different places, in different ways. And whenever or wherever consumers transact, financial institutions need to accurately verify who is accessing accounts, making purchases or calling in. These unique patterns can help financial institutions detect and proactively prevent fraud.

That’s why Fiserv has introduced AuthHub, an intelligent data engine that connects Fiserv-managed consumer financial channels and touchpoints. 

Combined intelligence gathered from debit and credit card transactions, online and mobile banking activity, ACH transactions, ATM interactions, Zelle^® transactions, bill pay activity, wires activity, card tokenization, rewards programs and contact center interactions creates an in-depth profile of an individual’s financial services behaviors and patterns to better identify fraudulent activity before it occurs.