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June 29, 2012

Account Takeover Becomes the Most Prevalent Fraud Threat

An account takeover can happen when a fraudster or computer criminal poses as a genuine customer, gains control of an account and then makes unauthorised transactions. The hijacking of an existing bank, credit card or other account by a third party is becoming one of the most prevalent fraud threats to individuals, financial institutions and organizations.

The latest figures from CIFAS, the UK’s Fraud Prevention Service, reveal that this sort of fraud is a considerable danger. In the UK, during the first four months 2012, account takeover jumped by a massive 82% compared with the same four months 2011. The hijacking of credit card accounts has nearly doubled since January to April 2011 – totaling more than 40% of all account takeover frauds.

Moreover, fraudsters are using Internet as their most favoured channel. 71% of all account takeover crimes in this period were committed online. Fraudsters can target banking customers’ accounts through a number of ways – from one-off hijacks allowing the criminal to pay for goods to the complete emptying of a bank account. Online banking accounts are usually taken over as a result of phishing, spyware or malware scams.

Hassan van de Riet from ThreatMetrix, a company at the forefront in the fight against cybercrime, commented: “Bank account fraud is a serious concern. But the goods news is there are solutions and systems to eliminate the risk of falling victim to fraudsters. Understanding the evolving fraud threats that financial services organizations face today is essential to preventing the damaging effects that credit application fraud, identity theft and account takeovers can have on business, customers and bottom line.”

Solutions that integrate malware detection and advanced device identification with strong security give businesses the power to block cyber crimes that are becoming more and more sophisticated – like the trojan named Tatanga which appeared in Germany recently and contains a man-in-the-browser attack.