75% of fraudulent online banking payments originate from trusted devices

The latest Outseer Fraud & Payments Report for the first half of 2022, released by Outseer, a leader in payments authentication and monitoring solutions, demonstrates the alarming power of social engineering and Authorized Push Payment (APP) fraud, with 75% of fraudulent online banking payment activity coming from trusted accounts on trusted devices.

 

The report suggested that consumers are unwittingly parting ways with their money, having been duped by fraudsters’ scams, such as romance and crypto fraud.

 

An authorized push payment (APP) fraud occurs when a scammer, who is posing from a trusted entity, tricks the victim into transferring money to an account under their control. Popular examples include crypto and romance scams. Banks in many nations decline to reimburse losses incurred in this manner because the victim technically initiates the payment.

 

Outseer’s data revealed that brand abuse, including phoney social media profiles and websites designed to collect personal information, remains the most common attack vector. During the first half of 2022, Outseer observed 65% of fraudulent attacks to be brand abuse. Over 70% of fraudulent transactions take place on mobile devices.

 

The majority of CNP fraud observed in the first half of this year was based on account takeover. Outseer detected 87,000 attacks on customers, equating to an average of almost 20 attacks every hour. In the first half of 2022, the number of phishing attempts that were directed at the US increased by 42%, while attempts coming from Russia increased by 25%.

 

Mark Crichton, head of Product at Outseer, social engineering remains a key weapon in the fraudster’s arsenal when it comes to fraudulent payments. He added that these attacks are getting more frequent and that three-quarters of fraudulent transactions should sound the alarm bells for banks.

 

He also said that technologies like AI and machine learning help recognize unusual payment patterns and prevent source fraud. Without these cutting-edge tools, APP fraud will flourish and more customers will suffer losses.

 

Crichton asserted that the use of brand impersonation attacks by fraudsters is on the rise, highlighting the necessity for businesses to constantly monitor brand abuse and implement rapid takedown services when it does occur.