Security News

A new report from Forter has found that, since its April report, there have been "New and steady increases in online consumer purchasing volumes." The new findings, which were gathered through Forter's global merchant network-which processes upwards of $150 billion each year-look at how e-commerce consumer behavior and fraud are changing during COVID-19.

A well-organized Nigerian crime ring is exploiting the COVID-19 crisis by committing large-scale fraud against multiple state unemployment insurance programs, with potential losses in the hundreds of millions of dollars, according to a new alert issued by the U.S. Secret Service. A memo seen by KrebsOnSecurity that the Secret Service circulated to field offices around the United States on Thursday says the ring has been filing unemployment claims in different states using Social Security numbers and other personally identifiable information belonging to identity theft victims, and that "a substantial amount of the fraudulent benefits submitted have used PII from first responders, government personnel and school employees."

The telecommunications, retail and financial services industries have been increasingly impacted by COVID-19 online fraud, according to TransUnion. "Given the billions of people globally that have been forced to stay at home, industries have been disrupted in a way not seen on this massive of a scale for generations," said Shai Cohen, Senior VP of Global Fraud & Identity Solutions at TransUnion.

The survey talked to 4,000 consumers across the United States and the United Kingdom about consumer attitudes toward card fraud in an increasingly digital economy. 46 percent of US consumers surveyed had fallen victim to card fraud in the past, with 20 percent of consumers hit inside the last 12 months.

TransUnion announced the creation of its Global Fraud & Identity Solutions Group, a move focused on uniting all aspects of the company's fraud risk offerings, and the hiring of industry veteran, Shai Cohen, to lead the group. "For years TransUnion has been a leading force in fraud prevention with a steady stream of high-profile acquisitions, product innovations and industry hires," said Tim Martin, executive vice president and chief global solutions officer at TransUnion.

With the coronavirus economic crisis deepening, experts at University of Portsmouth are warning it will lead to the highest levels of fraud and cybercrime ever recorded. Respected economists have predicted the current crisis could lead to a substantial reduction in GDP with lowest estimates of a 7.4 per cent fall and highest estimates of a 35 per cent fall by the OBR. "These predictions could mean fraud levels increasing from at least 30.3 per cent and possibly even doubling if the 35 per cent fall was to occur. These are rough estimates, but illustrate that a substantial increase in fraud is likely as a consequence of the economic downturn."

The National Cyber Security Centre has launched the Suspicious Email Reporting Service: a new email address for reporting scam mails to a government department that might actually do something about it. The cybersecurity service, an offshoot of eavesdropping agency GCHQ, said it has set up an "Automated programme" that will "Immediately test the validity of the site" if one is mentioned in a phishing email.

A Connected TV ad fraud operation managed to generate as much as 28% of the CTV traffic observed in January 2020 by White Ops, a company that specializes in bot fraud protection. White Ops discovered that "66% of programmatic CTV-related SSAI traffic and 15% of programmatic mobile-related SSAI traffic" was part of this operation in January 2020.

In a report released Thursday, Terbium Labs looks at how fraud guides and other information are bought and sold on the dark web and how this activity impacts organizations and individuals. Based on the analysis, fraud guides were the hottest product on dark web marketplaces, compromising 49% of the listings.

Fraud related to the coronavirus has cost Americans $13m and so far counting, according to the US government. While authorities have been warning for weeks of various scams and fraud operations based on the coronavirus pandemic, the FTC's report is one of the few to put a dollar amount on the damage being done by criminals.