In 2022, fraud losses ballooned by over 30% year-over-year, climbing to roughly $8.8 billion. However, with human error causing 95% of cybersecurity breaches, business owners still have significant ability to defend their assets and minimize losses. Through awareness and proactive defenses, companies can take fraud protection into their own hands and build stronger, faster payment processes.
We've identified five common fraud trends and four strategies you can implement to protect your organization.
The top 5 fraud trends facing business owners
Check fraud: From counterfeit, stolen, and altered checks to checks drawn on closed accounts, check fraud puts hard-earned money at risk—and can take weeks to identify. By the time businesses spot the fraud, their funds could already be lost.
Business email compromise: Scammers have become adept at impersonating reliable parties, typically CEOs or CFOs, by imitating their email addresses. This common scam opens the door to payment fraud and potentially reveals sensitive client, vendor, and company information, damaging a company's reputation.
Phishing: 91% of cyberattacks start with phishing—an increasingly sophisticated and common social engineering scheme that attacks a person instead of a system. The attacker typically sends a message tricking the individual into downloading malware or ransomware or revealing credentials. Once in the company’s systems, they mirror the victim’s computer screen, steal data, or even hold the business hostage, halting operations and hurting customers.
Zero-day vulnerability attacks: As cybercriminals become more skilled and organized, known company vulnerabilities have become easy for hackers to buy and sell. Zero-day incidents occur when attackers exploit a discovered weakness in a security configuration before a vendor can patch it.
Credential stuffing: When scammers get stolen credentials at one organization through a data breach or the dark web, they try to access a user’s other accounts. These incidents are possible when employees reuse the same password across several systems.
4 strategies to protect your reputation bottom and line
The core of fraud prevention is training employees to stop and think before acting—from responding to emails and clicking on links to approving suspicious payments. By following simple best practices and installing company-wide safety standards, business owners can lower cybersecurity risks across their organizations.
2. Use fraud prevention solutions: Specialized payment solutions are designed to save business owners time and worry through built-in support. First American Bank’s range of Positive Pay products help prevent unauthorized payments and scams by adding extra security to payment processes—from verifying recipients to electronically examining checks for discrepancies. First American Bank’s solutions enhance flexibility, allowing companies to accept or reject payments online.
3. Protect your information: There are simple ways everyone at a company can safeguard systems and logins—from frequently changing passwords to avoiding password sharing and repetition. Additionally, continuously patching system weaknesses and giving only approved devices access to information can prevent break-ins.
4. Stay alert and report suspicions: Promoting scam awareness gives employees the tools to identify phishing and business email compromise attacks before they cause damage. Common techniques include looking for typos, messages that seem out of character, and prompts to open attachments or follow links. Employees should familiarize themselves with relevant data laws and regulations and report suspicious activity to the IT department.
Mitigate present and future risks with customized banking support
In a world of shifting financial security threats, First American Bank supports business owners where they are and where they’re headed with scalable security strategies. Our business experts work with owners to shore up payment vulnerabilities and preserve accounts and customer trust, all while keeping an eye on company growth objectives.
