Who is calling me?
ABA Fraudcast
Criminals are calling bank customers. A lot. And those calls often are successfully cloaked as originating from banks themselves. Increasingly, these calls are originating from vast operation centers, often overseas, where the objective is to fool bank customers to hand over personal data and information. There are some steps banks, their customers, federal agencies and even Congress can take to address this growing problem. Joining ABA’s Paul Benda to discuss these issues on this edition of the ABA Fraudcast are Mike Rudolph, chief technology officer at YouMail, and Jonathan Thessin, VP and...
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FTC report shows how elder fraud is expanding
ABA Fraudcast
A focus on elder fraud kicks off Season 2 of the ABA Fraudcast, as Paul Benda interviews Lois Greisman, associate director of the Federal Trade Commission's division of marketing practices. They discuss , issued in December, that reveals a big increase in the number of older adults reporting losses of more than $100,000 to scams. The will be published every three weeks, here and wherever you listen to and subscribe to your favorite podcasts, such as Apple and Spotify. Please subscribe! to help banks prevent, identify, measure and report fraud, and to serve and protect consumers and their...
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From Australia, an ecosystem approach to reducing financial scams
ABA Fraudcast
On this edition of the ABA Fraudcast, Chris Taylor of the Australian Banking Association describes his country’s multi-component approach that has resulted in a 26% reduction in scam losses, an effort that includes partnerships with telecoms and establishment of its . The will be published every three weeks, here and wherever you listen to and subscribe to your favorite podcasts, such as Apple and Spotify. Please subscribe! to help banks prevent, identify, measure and report fraud, and to serve and protect consumers and their financial data. ABA’s #BanksNeverAskThat and...
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The bank that breaks the spell
ABA Fraudcast
Assisting bank customers who are the victims of scams after the fact is difficult enough for banks. But what happens when a scam is not only on-going but may even be literally unknown to the victim? Santander UK decided to create a team trained in rescuing customers involved in such increasingly common financial scams. Paul Benda, ABA’s EVP for risk, fraud and cybersecurity, discusses the history of that bank's Break the Spell team with Chris Ainsley and Michelle Pilsworth from Santander UK. The team is specially trained to do just what its name indicates: interrupt scams in real time to...
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The urgency of scam prevention as a national priority
ABA Fraudcast
Inaction is not an option. That is the thesis of , a new report from the Aspen Institute. Discussing the report’s recommendations and insights on this edition of the ABA Fraudcast is Kate Griffin, director of Aspen’s National Task Force on Fraud and Scam Prevention. “The very first call to action is simply that we say that scam prevention needs to be identified as a national priority for us as a country,” Griffin tells ABA’s Paul Benda. The will be published every three weeks, at the and wherever you listen to and subscribe to your favorite podcasts, such as Apple and Spotify....
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Taking the fraud prevention message directly to lawmakers
ABA Fraudcast
Big problems require big ideas. How about establishing a White House office of fraud and scam prevention? Or closing loopholes so telecoms stop spoof calls and texts? And ensuring social media companies quickly take down impersonation accounts? On this edition of the ABA Fraudcast, we include Paul Benda's opening statement addressing these challenges and others as delivered recently to the House Financial Services Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations, as well as his analysis of the urgency of a coordinated response from lawmakers and law enforcement. Read Paul Benda's and check out...
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Enhancing security with .bank domain registration
ABA Fraudcast
On this episode of the ABA Fraudcast, we dive into how the Internet works — and why it’s so easy for criminals to create fake bank websites. We’ll explore how these sites get taken down and what banks can do to combat this growing threat. Our guest, Craig Schwartz of fTLD Registry Services, breaks down the key differences between traditional .com domains and the more secure .bank domain — a top-level domain created by a consortium led by the American Bankers Association and other partners specifically to reduce fraud. Schwartz explains the rigorous security measures behind .bank,...
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Elder fraud threats and state hold laws
ABA Fraudcast
As elder fraud skyrockets, banks are actively seeking the best strategies to protect their customers, including proper use of “hold” laws to delay transactions in suspected cases of exploitation. In this episode of the ABA Fraudcast, ABA’s Paul Benda addresses these important issues with guests Barb Graziano, VP, internal audit, compliance and BSA officer for First Seacoast Bank in New Hampshire, and Sam Kunjukunju, VP consumer education and community engagement, who discusses ABA’s , which has valuable information for banks.
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How the ABA Foundation helps banks protect their customers
ABA Fraudcast
One of the major efforts from the very busy team at the ABA Foundation these days is helping bankers help older Americans protect themselves from scams. The Foundation's Safe Banking for Seniors program focuses on a number of ways seniors can avoid financial danger. "We provide and materials to help bankers lead personal finance presentations with kids, young adults and seniors in their communities," explains Sam Kunjukunju, ABA's VP for consumer education, in this episode of the ABA Fraudcast. "Unfortunately the criminals are definitely targeting Americans of all ages, and it's very...
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Inside ABA's new platform to help prevent Treasury check fraud
ABA Fraudcast
ABA's to provide members with free access to the Treasury Check Verification System is now live. On a special joint episode of the ABA Banking Journal Podcast and ABA Fraudcast, ABA anti-fraud experts Paul Benda and Hannah Ibberson discuss the platform and how banks can put it to use. Among other topics, Benda and Ibberson discuss: the scale of physical U.S. Treasury checks and why they remained a potential vector for fraud; how and why ABA developed the platform; how ABA member bank employees -- including frontline staff -- can access the portal to verify a payee; and ways this new platform...
info_outlineCriminals are calling bank customers. A lot. And those calls often are successfully cloaked as originating from banks themselves. Increasingly, these calls are originating from vast operation centers, often overseas, where the objective is to fool bank customers to hand over personal data and information.
There are some steps banks, their customers, federal agencies and even Congress can take to address this growing problem. Joining ABA’s Paul Benda to discuss these issues on this edition of the ABA Fraudcast are Mike Rudolph, chief technology officer at YouMail, and Jonathan Thessin, VP and senior counsel at ABA, whose portfolio focuses on the telecom ecosystem, FCC, including the Telephone Consumer Protection Act and all efforts to assist banks and bank customers confronted with this threat.
Highlights:
- 2:00 — Technology as part of a protective ecosystem used by many banks, to short-circuit threats to customers.
- 13:00 — Defining the “robocall mitigation obligation.”
- 16:00 — The challenge of vetting a telecom company.
- 18:00 — The difference between an imposter call and spoofed call.
- 28:00 — How the telecom ecosystem works.
- 29:00 — Protecting lawful bank calls, while addressing the problem of calls from bad-actors impersonating banks. And what is the extent of ABA’s advocacy on these issues?
- 31:00 — Urging the FCC to take an important final step.
- 32:53 — What can Congress do.
- 36:25 — Shout out to Fraudcast episode 1, where bank CEO Dan Robb describes a mass call spoofing campaign with thousands of calls targeting customers of his bank.
- 42:00 — Thessin on how do bad guys place hundreds of thousands of phone calls very cheaply.
- 47:00 — Looking into steps banks can take, such as branding tools for caller ID displays.
Also referenced is STIR/SHAKEN, the acronym for the framework allowing verification that a call is in fact from the number displayed on caller ID. Learn more from the FCC site.
The ABA Fraudcast will be published every three weeks, here and wherever you listen to and subscribe to your favorite podcasts, such as Apple and Spotify. Please follow!
ABA offers resources to help banks prevent, identify, measure and report fraud, and to serve and protect consumers and their financial data. ABA’s scam prevention campaigns #BanksNeverAskThat and #PracticeSafeChecks are newly updated as well. The ABA Foundation’s Protecting Older Americans page includes useful resources to assist the fight against elder financial exploitation and other increasing threats.
The episode is also available here.
ABA Fraudcast host is Paul Benda, EVP, risk, fraud and cybersecurity at ABA.