08/27/2024

The Evolution Of Fraud: New Platforms, Old Tricks

Forbes

When you think of con artists, images of swindlers and thieves in busy streets likely come to mind. In the digital era, the streets become online forums and digital communities. This new era of fraud swaps face-to-face schemes with digital interactions. Instead of forged documents, fraudsters now create synthetic identities by mixing stolen data like social security numbers with fictitious details. This shift replaced personal cues like glances, gestures and tones with sophisticated phishing emails and fraudulent websites.

Fraud has evolved into a high-tech global operation causing annual losses that may exceed $500 billion to the federal government alone. The Association of Certified Fraud Examiners estimates that globally, organizations lose over $5 trillion to fraud. While the methods have switched from physical interactions to digital trails, the core goal remains: exploit trust to strip victims of their assets. Technology has made scams easier to execute with a global reach and greater anonymity, but it also helps us trace fraud more easily and makes digital evidence more concrete, and cyber laws are getting tighter.