As a consumer, you may be concerned about fraud. Perhaps you’ve been a victim of fraud and understand the huge inconvenience that follows as you try to undo the damage. Industries around the globe are promoting International Fraud Awareness Week during 17-23 November 2024.
The Most Common Types of Financial Scams
Visual Capitalist says, “In 2023, there were $485.6 billion lost in total from financial scams.” Below is a breakdown of the scams that generated the biggest losses:
| Type of Financial Scam/Scheme | Global Losses (USD) |
|---|---|
| Payments Fraud | $386.8B |
| Credit Card Fraud | $28.6B |
| Check Fraud | $26.6B |
| Advance Fee Scams | $19.1B |
| Cyber-enabled Scams | $10.0B |
| Impersonation Scams | $6.8B |
| Employment Scams | $3.9B |
| Confidence Scams | $3.8B |
| Total | $485.6B |
Table 1. Biggest scams of 2023. Visual Capitalist
Preventing Fraud – A Shared Responsibility
As a consumer and customer, you can do a lot by arming yourself with knowledge of cybercriminals – what their motivation is, what methods they use, and the tools they use to trick you.
Fraudsters’ Motivation. The “Fraud Triangle” states that “individuals are motivated to commit fraud when three elements come together: (1) some kind of perceived pressure, (2) some perceived opportunity, and (3) some way to rationalize the fraud as not being inconsistent with one’s values.”
Fraudsters are greedy, self-centered, and they do not mind harming or inconveniencing you.
Fraudsters Leverage Human Nature. We each have the right to imperfection – so mistakes will be made. Mistakes may come from poor judgment about taking that “too good to be true” online job offer (with a payment you have to deposit into your bank account right away), or from procrastinating on security application updates to your home PC operating system.
Fraudsters use bots to probe the internet looking for a mistake to exploit. They’re sneaky and they’re always searching.
Tactics Fraudsters Have Used. Fraudsters use social engineering tactics such as phishing emails, SMS texting, malware, compromised websites, trojans, ransomware, and more.
Fraudsters hope you aren’t alert, educated, and smart enough to catch them. Prove them wrong.
Tips To Help You Remain on Guard
• Don’t reveal personal or financial information in a text or email, and don’t respond to email solicitations for this information.
• Don’t click on links sent in a text or email – you might wind up in a scam site built by a cybercriminal.
• Don't send sensitive information over the internet without checking the website's security. Look for URLs that begin with "https" – the ‘s’ stands for secure – rather than "http." A website safety checker like Google Safe Browsing helps, too.
If You’re a Victim Immediately change any passwords, you might have revealed. Consider reporting the attack to IC3.gov and the police and file a report with the Federal Trade Commission.
Getting Help If you identify suspicious activity involving your institution, contact them immediately.
Please remember, security is everyone's responsibility.
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Reprinted with permission. The views, information, or opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of Citizens State Bank and its affiliates, and Citizens State Bank is not responsible for and does not verify the accuracy of any information contained in this article or items hyperlinked within. This is for informational purposes and is no way intended to provide legal advice.