The age of digitization brought several changes to everyone’s lives. The trend of virtual collaborations and networking increased in 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic. With convenience everywhere for consumers and businesses, awareness regarding scams is also mandatory. Fraudsters are no longer crawling on the streets. They have also acquired digital strategies for their malicious intent.
The introduction of technology made it easier for scammers to stay hidden and terrorize people. Today, it is not just consumers having troubles, but companies are also unsafe. In 2019, the reported cases for data breaches were 54 percent more than in 2018. According to a report by Accenture, 68 percent of businesses feel a rise in cybersecurity issues. Undoubtedly, cybercrime is increasing with every passing day, so there is a dire need for an effective solution to eradicate online scams. This requires solutions like online document verification that can provide digital fraud prevention in real-time. Keep reading to find out the scams and an all-in-one solution for your company.
Before you jump onto the solution, know some common online frauds that can harm your business and the consumers too. Here are the most common scams reported in 2020, and 2021 is expecting more cases for the same scams. Find out how digital document verification offers a viable solution against these scams in the later part of the blog.
Phishing attacks were previously associated with emails where fraudsters used to send emails with a hacking virus. As soon as you open the mail, all your information is available for the scammers. Now, social media phishing attacks have also emerged. Around 24,000 phishing attacks were rooted in Australia, while the number is still not specific in the US.
Identity theft is another common fraud that emerged earlier in this decade. In the current year, it is among the top five scams worldwide. Fraudsters use the information of legitimate people for illegal activities like money laundering. The US police arrested a woman for identity theft last month, whereas the Employment Development Department (EDD) in California arrested 87 suspects for identity theft.
57 percent of the businesses reported higher losses due to account opening and account takeover frauds. Account takeover is the online version of identity theft where the culprit acquires access to the victim’s personal and financial information through online resources and misuses them. Illegal access to information is usually gained through bots; therefore, online verification of the customer can eliminate this risk.
A chargeback is a kind of credit card fraud or transaction reversal that is forcefully initiated by the culprit. Someone can steal a credit or debit card and use the information for buying any product or service. Since you (the original user) did not make the transaction, claiming the money back will cause you no harm, but the business has to suffer. It loses the money and the product/service too.
Since fraudsters are using artificial intelligence and other technological improvements for their plans, it is challenging for companies to combat cybercrime. The root cause of all the scams is onboarding customers without id document verification, and businesses must consider verifying clients to filter fraudsters before they cause any trouble. One of the most effective ways is document verification where a KYC expert of the company verifies the document authenticity. In the case of forgery or any other issue, the company can reject the client’s application.
Getting legitimate customers onboard is one of the trickiest challenges since fraudsters are coming up with advanced methods of fulfilling their evil desires. Phishing attacks, identity theft, synthetic identity theft, and mobile have been repeatedly reported by individuals across the world. Combating these issues demands robust document verification checks to establish healthier relationships rather than onboarding fraudsters along with legitimate customers and embracing frauds.
