"Authorized Push Payments Surge to 75% of Banking Fraud"

Researchers at Outseer have warned that most online banking fraud today is the result of customers being duped into paying scammers.  The researchers stated that so-called authorized push payment (APP) fraud occurs when a scammer posing as a trusted entity tricks the victim into transferring money to a bank account under their control.  The researchers noted that as the victim technically initiates the payment, banks in many countries refuse to refund losses incurred this way.  These scams now comprise 75% of all digital banking fraud based on dollar value, according to a new 1H 2022 report from Outseer.  The firm’s head of product, Mark Crichton, said social engineering is a “key weapon in the fraudster’s arsenal” when it comes to such attacks.  The researchers also stated that brand impersonation is a key tactic in APP fraud.  Outseer claimed it accounted for 65% of attacks detected in the first half of the year.  The researchers also found that the number of phishing attacks targeting US customers grew 42% in the first half of 2022, and attacks originating from Russia increased 25%.  Outseer claimed to have detected 87,000 attacks on customers in the first six months of 2022, which averages around 20 attacks every hour.

Infosecurity reports: "Authorized Push Payments Surge to 75% of Banking Fraud"