KeyBank’s “Key4Women” Fraud Awareness Webinar: An Impactful Session
- Key4Women presented leaders in their field, talking about fraud prevention
- Avoiding fraud means taking preventative measures
- Business email is a popular entry path for fraud
Key4Women, an organization dedicated to supporting the financial progress and empowerment of business women, presented a highly impactful discussion of the latest in fraud threats and how to protect yourself at home and in the office with best practices shared from industry experts.
The session was part of a series of presentations by leaders in their fields, including Jen Martin, head of Enterprise Fraud Services at KeyBank, Stephanie Breen of the FBI, and Tammy Gedetsis, KeyBank Senior information security manager and consultant.
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Shining a Light on Fraud Threats
The presentation did a great job clearly delineating the types of fraud that are most common, and, most importantly, how to avoid these fraud threats. This included practical advice for small business owners to protect against insider threats, such as:
- Hire the right employees
- Arrange for surprise audits
- Insist that all employees take allotted vacation time
- Create an ethical work environment and a no-tolerance culture
Business protection is, of course, very important, but the session also got closer to home, taking time to point out practical ways to protect your family -- including children and seniors -- from online social engineering tactics that are especially dangerous to persons not yet accustomed to remaining "on guard" when online.
As KeyBank's Jen Martin pointed out:
We are on the front lines of fighting fraud every day, and I always like to state that we are all deputized to fight fraud in our own way for ourselves and our families. We are our first line of defense to thwart these bad actors.
They also outlined the most common fraud scams to look out for:
Key4Women Slide
Fraud Trends
Another valuable part of the session was a discussion of what particular types of fraud are on the rise. Unemployment fraud is, of course, escalating owing to the disproportionate amount of claims and checks that are active. As we've discussed in this space previously, many victims of unemployment fraud aren't even aware that they've been "hacked" until they get a 1099G tax form mailed to them.
Also, given that so much remote work is being done during the pandemic, Business Email Compromise (BEC) is on the rise (losses for 2021 total $1.8 billion).
It was a valuable and helpful session, and Key4Women has a great slate of events coming up as well, so be sure to check them out! We applaud KeyBank's strategy, empowering its consumer base to be informed on the latest fraud schemes and trends, and providing tools with which they can protect themselves from becoming victims. It's an important element in the fight against fraud, along with deploying the latest technologies (check out our #OrboZone Fraud webpage) to update back-end fraud detection operations.