LexisNexis Risk Solutions Report Confirms Post-pandemic Fraud Spike

A new LexisNexis Risk Solutions report based on a number of studies conducted over the course of 2020 looks at the state of fraud in the United States and Canada, and the key trends that emerged during the COVID-19 pandemic.

In its report, LexisNexis reaffirms the widely held belief that the COVID-19 pandemic has had a profound impact on the state of digital fraud by way of the massive role it has played in shifting consumer behavior toward digital transactions. Due to ongoing physical and social distancing restrictions put into place throughout the world in attempts to mitigate the spread of the virus, a resulting profound rise in the number of people working remotely has led to consequent growth in both the amount of online traffic and instances of cybercrimes.

“Digital transaction in the U.S. and Canada increased 42% year-over-year leading up to June 2020 with 60% representing mobile transactions, 67% made via a mobile app and 33% made by a mobile browser,” reads a summary of the report.

LexisNexis also notes that the growth of digital transactions has also led to a shift in the popularity of which types of payment methods are targeted by fraudsters.

“Difficult to detect fraud methods like synthetic identities, identity fraud rings, multiple device linkages and bot attacks create identity proofing challenges for businesses,” says the report. “Identity proofing could prove to be a significant challenge for organizations in 2021, as fraudsters leverage digital channels to launch more sophisticated and complex types of fraud.”

It’s also noted that the information stolen in data breaches goes beyond just PINs and passwords, with fraudsters placing great value on identifiers that are linked to accounts such as email and billing addresses, and phone numbers.

The report puts this into context, pointing out that with 45 percent of Americans having been victims of data breaches in the last five years, that adds up to a lot of personally identifiable information that has fallen into the hands of fraudsters. Also of note is the estimate that between January and June of 2020 one out of every seven new accounts created are suspected to be fraudulent.

“Businesses can no longer use a check-the-box, incremental approach towards addressing these challenges and trends one at a time because fraud always evolves,” said Kimberly Sutherland, vice president, fraud and identity management strategy at LexisNexis Risk Solutions. “These factors feed on each other and require an integrated and holistic approach to detecting, assessing and mitigating fraud risks moving forward.”

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February 8, 2021 – by Tony Bitzionis