Money mules refer to the accounts fraudsters use to receive fraudulent funds. Mules themselves can come in many different shapes and sizes.  Banks Warning Customers About Money Mules For example, there are purpose-opened mules. These are accounts that fraudsters open with the pure intention of using them as money mules.  But there are also unwitting money mules. This is when fraudsters convince once-legitimate customers to allow them to use their account for muling purposes. That customer then becomes a conduit for moving fraudulent funds through the system. Witting mules, on the ..read more

Every holiday season, consumers worldwide rush to stores, scour websites, and enroll in buy now pay later (BNPL) plans to get last-minute gifts. Meanwhile, fraudsters are doing a different kind of shopping. Thanks to authorized push payment (APP) fraud and scams, fraudsters can quickly profit from the swirl of holiday activity, leaving consumers on the hook for financial losses. Now, a group of Nordic banks is preparing to join a growing group of banks worldwide that will assume liability for fraud and scam losses.  This shift in liability follows a decision by Sweden’s Supreme Court ..read more

Feedzai’s Dan Holmes recently joined Casey Nelson, Senior Director of Training Solutions for the Association of Certified Financial Crime Specialists (ACFCS), at the Lessons Learned from Fighting Scams Across the Regions in-person executive roundtable in Australia.  Here are the key takeaways from the discussions with the senior executive leaders in financial institutions across Australia. Australia is Following the UK’s Liability Example Scams have been a dominant force in the UK, with citizens losing £754 million to scams so far this year, according to UK Finance. Scams are now so p ..read more

Criminals use a wide array of fraud tactics to steal other people’s money. But what can criminals do with the money that they obtained fraudulently? They’ll need to launder the money into legitimate banking channels in order to profit from their activities. For this reason, argues Feedzai’s Brian Ferro, banks and financial institutions must think of fraud and anti-money laundering (AML) as supporting goals. Learn how banks can start to detect money laundering activity at the onboarding stage during know your customer (KYC) and customer due diligence (CDD) at customer onboarding – and beyond ..read more

Account takeover (ATO) fraud is a form of identity theft in which a fraudster gains access to legitimate user accounts. Once they have breached the compromised account, fraudsters can steal sensitive data including personally identifiable information (PII), credit card or debit card numbers, or bank account details. Feedzai’s Pablo de la Riva Ferrezuelo outlines how fraudsters use social engineering, keyloggers and malware, brute force attacks, and credential stuffing attacks to commit ATO fraud. Learn about one person’s personal experience with ATO and how banks can prevent future account ..read more

Feedzai is proud to participate in the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners (ACFE) International Fraud Awareness Week. From November 13 to November 19, 2022, we’ll proudly do our part to promote fraud awareness and help protect consumers and banks from fraudsters’ increasingly aggressive attacks. Make sure to visit this blog and our social media channels each day this week as we post something new each day. At Feedzai, there is no higher calling than making commerce and banking safer and more secure. We’re participating in Fraud Awareness Week to help build a safer financial future. Wh ..read more

What do a growing share of today’s consumers value? That’s just it: values. Consumers want to see their values reflected and shared with the brands they use – and the financial services sector is no exception. Many consumers put a premium on financial institutions that prioritize delivering services equally for all different groups. To enhance these social and sustainability objectives, banks should look for ways to connect their environmental, social, and governance (ESG) initiatives with their responsible AI priorities. ESG and responsible AI initiatives are not regulated at this time. B ..read more

The annual Money20/20 USA conference in Las Vegas just wrapped up. The event draws some of the biggest names in the financial services space to discuss the trends and developments shaping the payments landscape. Here are the three key takeaways from Money20/20 USA. BaaS Opens Opportunities to Reduce Infrastructure Costs  The first of the major Money20/20 takeaways looks at the expanding payment landscape. We’re seeing a plethora of payment providers pack the payment space (say that three times fast!). This includes challenger banks, FinTechs, smaller banks, and card processors. These ..read more

How is the global financial community responding to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine? Are financial institutions prepared to implement Perpetual Know Your Customer (pKYC) and respond to new anti-money laundering (AML) challenges? Feedzai’s Miguel Simoes recently attended the ACAMS 21st Annual AML & Anti-Financial Crime Conference in Las Vegas. Here are his key findings on how the AML landscape is shifting. Miguel Simões: I’m Miguel Simões and this is your Weekly Feedzai Update.  I’m going to be talking about the ACAMS 21st Annual AML and Anti-Financial Crime Conference, which took pl ..read more

Feedzai’s new anti-money laundering report finds money mule schemes and cryptocurrency exchanges have become the favorite tactic of money launderers. However, most financial institutions aren’t utilizing available technology to address these threats. Our new report, The State of Global Anti-Money Laundering Compliance, is based on responses from 636 answers submitted by anti-money laundering (AML) compliance experts around the world to 19 questions in four categories. The report sheds light on the challenges AML compliance professionals face in the fight against money laundering. This rang ..read more