BioCatch, the leader in behavioural biometric intelligence and digital fraud detection, today released its first annual EMEA Digital Banking Fraud Trends report. As bank fraud continues to threaten progress and disrupt lives in the digital age, according to the first-of-its-kind report scams have become the favoured and most effective tool used by cybercriminals across the European and Middle Eastern region. BioCatch researchers found that 52% of reported 2022 fraud cases in digital retail banking were due to scams, as consumers contend with the cost-of-living crisis and increasingly new and sophisticated scams that target some of the most vulnerable people in society.
Notable findings of the report include:
• Authorised Push Payments (APP) scams are the #1 cause of fraud losses in the UK.
• 12% of all fraud in EMEA are Remote Access Trojan (RAT) attacks.
• Over 70% of RAT scams originate via a phone call.
• Elderly banking customers are unequally targeted by scams leveraging RAT attacks.
• BioCatch received its first reports of fraud cases in Spain that use stolen devices, a tactic which appears to be spreading across Europe.
The inaugural report shows that remote access fraud continues to rise in the region, with cybercriminals using RAT attacks to not only execute fraud but also to observe and commit social engineering attacks on their victims. BioCatch found that over 70% of these RAT scams originated via a phone call from scammers directly to their human targets. Shockingly, 85% of these remote access cases involved seniors, illustrating the increased risk of digital banking for vulnerable demographics.
The report also highlights that Authorised Push Payments (APP) scams caused the greatest losses, which banks in the region are now moving quickly to address with the introduction of new UK legislation from the Payment Systems Regulator (PSR).
“It is tragic when anyone is scammed and suffers the associated humiliation and financial losses, especially when those victims are afraid, trusting, and vulnerable,” said Gadi Mazor, CEO of BioCatch. “Our report emphasises the need for financial institutions to recognise the pivot cybercriminals have made away from attacking systems to now focus on humans. We as a community of banks, governing bodies, and vendors must work together to devise solutions and regulations that protect our customers’ privacy and financial assets. This is possible and we must act quickly.”
This report provides a high-level view of the fraud landscape based on aggregated data from financial institutions across EMEA over twelve months beginning January 2022, as well as data and insights collected by BioCatch’s Global Advisory and Threat Analyst teams.
To learn more, read the full report here: https://www.biocatch.com/resources/white-paper/digital-banking-fraud-trends-emea-2023
