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New Account Takeover Fraud Mitigation Toolkit, additional enhancements

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Reports of financial scams and fraud are continuing to escalate in number and sophistication year over year. The use of modern technology and increase in new, emerging tactics are helping criminals be more successful than ever in their attempts to steal funds from individuals and businesses. Even older, less complex methods of fraud and scams are becoming more believable and harder to identify due to current techniques.

To address these new advancements in payments fraud, the Federal Reserve released a fourth toolkit — the Account Takeover Fraud Mitigation Toolkit (Off-site) — which details what account takeover fraud is and how it happens. Additionally, substantial enhancements have been made to our Scams Mitigation Toolkit (Off-site) and Check Fraud Mitigation Toolkit (Off-site), including a robust selection of new downloadable resources and three new interactive “Test Your Knowledge” assessments.

Mike Timoney quote about the importance of education in fraud mitigation

New Account Takeover Fraud Mitigation Toolkit

Account takeover fraud occurs when a criminal gains unauthorized access to a legitimate user account and exploits that access for fraudulent purposes. Account takeover fraud has increased in recent years and is driven in part by a combination of consumers’ expanded digital footprints, criminals’ wider access to breached user data, and emerging technologies that can make account takeover easier to automate.

The newly published Account Takeover Fraud Mitigation Toolkit (Off-site) includes the following easy-to-navigate modules:

Module 1: Account Takeover Fraud Basics (Off-site) — Explains what account takeover fraud is, why you should care and why it is important to mitigate it.

This module provides education on:

Module 2: How Account Takeover Fraud Happens (Off-site) — Educates on the account takeover lifecycle and explores the following:

Check Fraud Mitigation Toolkit — new enhancements

Check fraud is a financial crime that involves the unauthorized use of a paper or electronic check. Its consequences include financial losses, operational disruptions and eroded trust in financial institutions. Criminals are becoming more sophisticated and their efforts more believable with the help of advances in technology and access to data. The newly published enhancements to the Check Fraud Mitigation Toolkit (Off-site) include additional resources and interactive quizzes:

New “Test Your Knowledge” assessments

New downloadable resources

Scams Mitigation Toolkit — new enhancements

A scam is defined as the use of deception or manipulation to achieve financial gain. This growing, evolving threat impacts individuals, businesses and entire economies. Consequences include financial, emotional and psychological tolls. In some cases, the stolen money fuels global organized crime.

The newly published enhancements to the Scams Mitigation Toolkit (Off-site) includes these additional resources and interactive quizzes:

New “Test Your Knowledge” assessments

New downloadable resources

Don’t forget to explore our Synthetic Identity Fraud Mitigation Toolkit (Off-site) where you can find a comprehensive collection of downloadable resources, videos and self-assessments that let you evaluate your ability to identify synthetic identity fraud.

Stay engaged

A second release of the Account Takeover Fraud Mitigation Toolkit exploring prevention, detection and real-life scenarios is expected later this year. Watch for more information and learning opportunities from the Fed as we continue to collaborate with the payments industry to address the growing threat of fraud.

These toolkits were developed by the Federal Reserve to help educate the industry about account takeover fraud, synthetic identity fraud, scams and check fraud. Insights for these toolkits were provided through interviews with industry experts, publicly available research and team member expertise. The toolkits are not intended to result in any regulatory or reporting requirements, imply any liabilities for fraud loss, or confer any legal status, legal definitions, or legal rights or responsibilities. While use of these toolkits throughout the industry is encouraged, their utilization is voluntary at the discretion of each individual entity. Absent written consent, the toolkits may not be used in a manner that suggests the Federal Reserve endorses a third-party product or service.

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