WHAT IS FINANCIAL INSTITUTION FRAUD (FIF)?
According to the Federal Trade Commission, bank and lender fraud was the sixth most frequently reported fraud of 2019, with almost 150,000 reports that year alone. An increasing number of them target financial institutions. The FBI calls these FIFs—Financial Institution Frauds. These schemes involve the misappropriation of customer accounts and personal information for use in identity thefts, and consumers always end up the unwitting victims. Fraudsters performing these acts may be acting on the outside, but they also may be working on the inside. About 70% of identity theft starts with an employee stealing information from his or her own company, and 6 out of 10 American companies and government agencies have been hacked.
70% OF IDENTITY THEFT STARTS WITH AN EMPLOYEE STEALING INFORMATION.
FIFs may include the following scams, which are seen with alarming regularity by the FBI:
• Stolen or counterfeit checks
• Account fraud or identity theft
• Credit/debit card fraud
• Email hacking leading to financial loss
And although FDIC backing ensures that banks will perform due diligence and prevents some amount of fraud, the unfortunate truth is that scammers are just really good these days, and technology makes them even better at getting away with it.
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