Wednesday, November 15, 2023
Stu Bradley, senior vice president, risk, fraud and compliance at SAS, stated that it's becoming difficult to distinguish between legitimate and fraudulent communications.
"Even as consumers signal increased fraud vigilance, generative AI and deepfake technology are helping fraudsters hone their lucrative craft," he said. "Phishing messages are becoming more polished. Replica websites look stunningly like the ones they mean to imitate. It takes just $5 and a few seconds of audio to clone someone's voice with readily available online tools."
Evgeniy Ivantsov, chief marketing officer at FYST, agreed that fraud is a global problem, making it crucial to improve understanding of where and how it presents in different regions.
"Payment fraud trends and techniques vary geographically due to differences in payment infrastructure, regulation, law enforcement, and customer [behaviors] around the world," he said. "Understanding the regional specificities and global hotspots for different fraud types is crucial for developing effective fraud prevention and mitigation strategies."
Citing an SAS survey of 13,500 adults, Bradley noted that seven in 10 respondents fell victim to fraud at least once, and 40 percent suffered two or more attacks. In addition, 86 percent surveyed are increasingly wary of fraud, he stated.
"Consider that nine in 10 consumers think organizations should be doing more to safeguard them from fraud, and that two-thirds said they would change service providers due to a fraud experience or for better fraud protection," he said. He also noted that additional data on fraud in the United States, Europe and Asia is available in Global Digital Fraud Trends, a white paper published Nov. 13, 2023, by Javelin and SAS, at www.sas.com/en_us/offers/23q1/global-digital-fraud-trends-white-paper.html
John Gill, president of ACFE, encouraged the security community to participate in Fraud Week, stating, "Anti-fraud professionals can't afford to ignore the scams and frauds coming to the fore in these challenging economic times—nor can the organizations that employ them afford to disregard the public's changing expectations around fraud protection."
SAS, a member of The Association of Certified Fraud Examiners, mentioned that it will host webinars throughout Fraud Week, including the following:
FYST Payment Fraud Trends: An Analysis Using Google Trends and Search Engine Data, published Nov. 13, 2023, found that increased searches worldwide for phishing, pharming, whaling and friendly fraud attacks indicate prevalence and awareness of these threats.
Commenting on the research, Ivantsov noted that search volumes peaked again in October. "This could be linked to the first APP scams performance report by PSR, but also points to a growing interest from consumers in reducing fraud through innovations such as artificial intelligence, machine learning and open banking," he said. 
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