Catfishing, the practice of pretending to be someone else online, became a cultural phenomenon through MTV's popular TV show "Catfish," driving more attention to our obsession with our online personas. However, it's not just social media that needs additional scrutiny. In the wake of several recent major data breaches of personally identifiable information (PII) such as Social Security numbers, dates of birth and addresses, cybercriminals have all the information they need to catfish their way right into your financial life in a process called new account fraud (NAF).
Our identities are being used for much darker purposes than creating fake profiles to lure online suitors. Cybercriminals are increasingly using PII to commit fraud, and it's a big business. According to Javelin Strategy & Research, $112 billion was stolen globally through fraudulent means between 2009 and 2015, equating to $35,600 lost every minute. In 2016, identity fraud hit a record high with 15.4 million victims in the U.S. alone, up 16 percent from 2015.
This goes beyond what has unfortunately become a somewhat common occurrence of someone using an account to buy an expensive TV or 10 pairs of designer sneakers. Cybercriminals are getting savvier, leveraging stolen identity details to catfish banks and open completely new accounts under fake or stolen names and bypassing common red flags by waiting to use them. Javelin predicted that NAF will rise as much as 44 percent by 2018 in the U.S., increasing losses from $5 billion to $8 billion in just four years.
Source: IBM Security Intelligence (View full article)
Posted by Dan Corcoran on November 3, 2017 08:21 AM
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