09/27/2020
COMMENTARY: Here Are the Key Factors Driving Digital Fraud in 2020
Digital Transactions
Over the last 24 months, organizations across the globe have experienced $42 billion in total fraud losses. An increasing number of businesses report higher losses related to fraudulent identities year over year, according to a report from Experian, from 51% in 2017 to 57% in 2019. Here are some of the underlying factors driving the increase in digital fraud.
To start with, fraud techniques and approaches are becoming more sophisticated and harder to stop.
Synthetic identity fraud is a $6-billion-per-year problem. The widespread availability of stolen PII (personally identifiable information) allows fraudsters to combine real and fake data to create new identities that are harder to detect. Savvier criminals play a long game, building up a history of legitimate transactions over time to improve the chances that a synthetic identity will be authorized for larger purchases or credit lines down the road. Then, they simply stop paying.