In a recent conversation with Karen Webster, Featurespace Founder Dave Excell and MidFirst Bank Vice President and Director of Enterprise Fraud Candler Eve sounded the alarm in the battle against payments fraud.
As Eve noted: “We work, live and breathe in a digital world … and in that digital world, it’s the Wild West right now.”
In the brick-and-mortar realm, there are some inherent advantages to making sure that people are safe from crime and that they can go about their everyday activities with some peace of mind. There are police forces and emergency services personnel out in the field, so to speak.
Ah, but protecting people in the digital realm is a dicier proposition.
And, as Eve contended, the banks are charged with the responsibility of being the keepers and the protectors of people’s money. Strong authentication is the key to establishing that protection.
Not an easy task in an age where seemingly every avenue of interaction between consumers and their financial institutions (FIs) is under siege. The bad actors are adept at impersonating the banks themselves, sending SMS messages and placing phone calls that dupe unsuspecting consumers into sending money to fraudulent accounts.
The criminals, of course, are armed with advanced technologies in their own quest to outsmart consumers and the FIs. A few stats highlight the favored vectors of attack — joint research from PYMNTS and Featurespace, utilizing the Federal Reserve’s FraudClassifier system,…
