Quote:For many, COVID-19 has been a crushing catastrophe. But for bank scammers, it’s shaped up to be a nice little money-making opportunity.
 
As the post-pandemic economy roars back to life, cybercriminals are using a new whirlwind of transactions as cover to launch an extraordinary number of bank fraud attacks. In just the past quarter, the number of attacks on banks ballooned by 159 percent.
 
As the U.S. passes the halfway mark for the number of adults getting at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, economists at Feedzai said overall spending has heated up in parallel. The stimulus is helping quite a bit too, they added. Their latest Financial Crime Report found that compared with January 2021, March 2021 saw a 21 percent jump in spending across state lines and a 410 percent increase in spending across borders, amounting to a 383 percent jump in the dollar amount spent. Notably, the number of transactions grew by 410 percent in just a handful of weeks.

More Bank Transactions, More Bank Fraud

“Good economic news is a global story: Transaction volume for all tracked regions is now greater than pre-pandemic levels,” Feedzai’s latest Financial Crime Report said. “And the APAC region, which has recovered faster and more consistently than other regions, continues to see strong transaction volume. Unfortunately, fraud and financial crime kept relative pace with consumer spending.”
 
Card Not Present (CNP) transactions were a sweet spot for fraudsters, Feedzai said, making up only 18 percent of credit card transactions, yet accounting for 83 percent of the total fraud attempts. The report advises banks to shore up fraud detection, prevention and mitigation in order to “stop what is only going to be an increasingly substantial problem.”