Modernizing Omnichannel Check Fraud Detection

Research by TransUnion, whose flagship fraud prevention solution IDVision® with iovation® gives them intelligence from billions of transactions and more than 40,000 websites and apps, recently released their quarterly analysis of global online fraud trends found that fraudsters are decreasing their schemes against businesses, but increasing COVID-19 focused scams against consumers online.

It’s a story becoming more and more common, unfortunately: On May 19, Stephen Holder of Franklin, WI lost his job because of COVID-19. Not to worry. Four days later Stephen got an alert for for a remote position via CareerBuilder. Things were looking up! Or were they?

OnPay Solutions President and CEO Neal Anderson minced no words in a recent interview with Pymnts.com wherein he discussed B2B payments fraud trends, including the growing threat of internal fraud. He went on to explain that organizations need to prepare themselves to address and mitigate the fraud threat, even as employees work from home.

BG Motor Cars owner Noman Beg was on vacation when he took a look at his bank account — and noted, with considerable alarm, that a check had been written against his account for $33,525. Problem was, he had not written that check, nor did he foresee being able to cover it alongside normal expenses in the near future.

The “Check Clearing for the 21st Century Act,” also known as “Check 21” or “Check 21 Act,” launched on Oct. 28, 2004. Many are unaware that the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001—which grounded planes and caused major delays in check processing (preventing the transport of canceled checks to Federal Reserve banks)—was actually the event that spurred passage of Check 21.

While we mainly explore fraud and counterfeit scams from the payment side of things, it should be noted that the popularity of online shopping — particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic — has created a new breed of fraudster that creates and sells fake products. Meanwhile, Amazon is not immune from fraudsters, as reported in WIRED Magazine:

Motley Fool’s The Ascent recently took look at FTC statistics in order to get a handle on mounting COVID-19 fraud losses losses to persons and businesses. COVID-19 fraud is defined in this case as any type of scam, fraud, or identity theft related to the novel coronavirus. Key findings from the report include: As of August 10, 2020, Americans have reported over 160,000 cases of fraud and losses of over $106 million.

A story from the New York Post features Case William Kelley, 42, who utilized a home printer to create a fraudulent check to successfully purchase a Porsche from an Oklahoma Dealer. This may sound like fake news…

Nigerian “419 scammer” goes big time “Hushpuppi” portrayed himself as successful and wealthy to recruit and fool victims It was a small error that eventually snared him By now, the phrase “Nigerian email scammer” has become a cliche to the extent that one wonders if they actually exist in the literal sense — a person…

An article by Antoinette Burnside, assistant vice president and product manager for Kennewick-based Community First Bank and HFG Trust, appeared in the Tri-Cities Area Journal of Business, describing how pervasive check fraud is feeding financial fraud in general.