The number of organizations suspecting they have been victims of fraud attempts in the past 12 months has risen 21 percentage points from 66% in 2013 to 87% in 2014, according to an analysis of data from IDology’s clients. Of those organizations, 40% says fraud attempts have increased from last year.
The second annual survey polled senior executives from IDology’s customer base in the finance, healthcare, gaming, retail, telecommunications and energy industries. 20% of the respondents are senior C-level executives, 23% are vice president/director level, 52% are managers and 5% are analyst-level employees.
On average, 86% survey respondents said that suspected fraud was most prevalent within web site applications, but all of the respondents in the retail sector said that fraud attempts were most prevalent in web site applications, such as e-commerce web sites. All respondents in the gaming, healthcare, media and entertainment industries also said that. A much smaller percentage of overall respondents said fraud was most prevalent in person (9%), on mobile (3%) and in call centers (2%).
Respondents said payment card fraud is the most prevalent, with 63% saying so. That’s up from 57% in 2013. The second most-prevalent was account takeover with 33%. Account takeover is when a fraudster gains access to a consumer’s account. “In 2014, fraudsters continued to target the prepaid, debit and credit industry,” the report says. “With the rise in frequency of data breaches and identity theft, fraudsters have turned to the prepaid industry in particular to purchase cards under stolen accounts, load them with cash and then launder funds through them.”
Although it’s viewed as the most prevalent type of fraud, most (55%) respondents said their organizations are also best-prepared to handle payment card fraud. That’s an increase from 21% last year. Money laundering came in at No. 2, with 29% of respondents saying they felt best-prepared to handle it, a decrease from 37% last year. Respondents had the least confidence in their organizations ability prevent and detect bill pay fraud, with just 5% selecting that response.