Faster Payment Threats, Malware-as-a-Service, and AI Powered Scams surfaced as major fraud trends according to Outseer’s 2024 Global Fraud & Scams Trends Report
BEDFORD, MA – May 22, 2024 – Outseer, a leader in providing fraud solutions that protect financial accounts from login through payment, announced the launch of the 2024 Global Fraud & Scams Trends Report. Outseer’s report offers a comprehensive analysis of fraud attacks over the past year, shedding a light on the ever-evolving cyber fraud landscape that affects financial institutions of all sizes.
The report is based on data collected and analyzed from Outseer’s FraudAction 24/7 Anti-Fraud Command Center (AFCC), which is comprised of a team of experts who continuously monitor global threats and protect the brands of our clients. Built with over 20 years of experience in the fraud industry, it is the largest and longest-standing fraud operations center in the world. The AFCC reviews over 2.4 billion URLs and over 18 million compromised emails, as well as detects over 200 thousand attacks annually. Threats can be blocked immediately after validation and are taken down with an industry-leading 12-hour average turnaround time.
“Among all of the major institutions we speak with, three topics are top of mind; AI, scams and money mules – and with good reason,” said Scott Olson, CMO, Outseer. “In 2024, the popularity and availability of AI in the past year has fueled a surge in the effectiveness of phishing scams that have led to an explosion in trojans and malware. Additionally, the increase in consumer accessibility to instant payments has led to a resurgence in instant payment scams and rising attention on money mules. Fraudsters are on a perpetual quest to enhance the efficiency of their scams and expedite the cash-out process, and in 2024, they have capitalized on emerging technologies.”
Key takeaways from the report include:
- The rise of banking trojans emerged as a significant cybersecurity threat, surging 120% increase in the total volume of attacks year-over-year.
- Malware-as-a-Service and information-stealing malware was a major theme through 2023 — while the volume of observed fraud grew 108%, malware attacks grew by a staggering 4,000%.
- Outseer has seen a significant uptick in authorized push payments, mule accounts, and account takeovers in markets where faster payment adoption is high. FIs surveyed saw a spike in fraud attacks using real-time rail: 57% said mule activity was up, 71% said consumer ATO had increased, and 62% said APP fraud had increased.
- Generative AI is predicted to fuel scams and corresponding losses. Effective scams depend on establishing trust with the victim and generative AI can virtually eliminate key indicators of scams consumers may have previously relied on like grammatical or spelling errors. Outseer believes generative AI has already contributed to the rising effectiveness of phishing tactics, resulting in a larger increase in successful trojan and malware attacks.
With the continual increase in fraud and scams, what can financial institutions do to prevent attacks? Outseer recommends updating fraud defenses by tapping into a data network consortium for better fraud detection, ensuring your fraud detection and prevention solution uses AI and predicative analytics to facilitate fraud detection and prevention, and updating your policy management solution.
To learn more about the latest trends and what you can do to combat them, download a copy of the report “2024 Global Fraud and Scams Trends Report: AI-Powered Scams, Malware-as-a-Service, and Faster Payment Threats”, and watch the webinar to gain deeper insights into the findings.
To learn more about how Outseer delivers fraud solutions that work for you, visit outseer.com.
About Outseer
Outseer is the global market leader in fraud prevention solutions that enable financial institutions to reduce fraud losses and operational costs while improving customer experience. Leveraging our 20-year history as RSA Fraud & Risk Intelligence, Outseer continues to innovate, protecting digital transactions from ever-evolving fraud threats. Outseer achieves this through our experienced global team, with employees in over 15 countries. Our proven AI-based platform leverages unique data science built on decades of global transaction data, including our proprietary consortium data, and intelligently orchestrates diverse data signals and authentication flows. Trusted by thousands of customers in over 50 countries, including hundreds of the world’s largest financial institutions, our solutions safeguard millions of accounts, billions of transactions, and trillions of dollars annually. Outseer is backed by established private equity investors that share our vision for liberating the world from transaction fraud. To learn more about how Outseer delivers fraud solutions that Stop Fraud Not Customers®, visit outseer.com.