Skimming and phishing attacks are becoming more common, with fraudsters taking full advantage of technology to operate globally. In the last two weeks alone, there have been headline articles on fraud or security breaches almost every day in the Wall Street Journal.

Then there was the recent posting on BankInfoSecurity.com that spoke to the need for certified fraud examiners to help fight fraud due to the increase in fraud threats around the globe. You see, fraudsters act very similarly in Hong King as those in the US: perpetrating fraud with the same methods and same techniques. This can be explained in part by an inconsistency in how banks and customers view one another. Customers see banks as a single brand operating across multiple channels, ranging from ATMs to mobile devices; banks view customers as diverse entities based on the products they use, such as mortgages and credit cards. This perception disparity creates inefficiencies that criminals can exploit. Fraudsters realize that bank fraud systems rarely monitor customer behavior across multiple accounts, channels and systems, thus paving the way for cross-channel fraud.

Speed is critical: The 2011 Identity Fraud Survey Report revealed that those victims who detected fraud within 21 hours lost an average of US$373; those who took up to a month to discover fraud lost an average of $572; and those who took up to five months lost an average of $1,207. Annual losses are staggering, particularly when you add associated costs such as lost wages and legal fees. And then there are the examples of even greater losses when organized criminals are involved. For example, I heard a recent story of internal fraud where insiders are actually stealing PII, or Personally Identifiable Information, such as names, addresses and bank account information, and selling it to underground fraud rings.

Don’t be left behind in the fight against fraud. Especially with the long awaited updates to the FFIEC authentication guidance, banks will need to spend more time replacing and updating old systems that are only effective at fighting today's advanced online fraud schemes.

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