by The War on Scammers Rages On
News of the eight Royal Mail scam arrests shows that financial criminals aren’t having it all their own way.
Smishing isn’t a new tactic. The Royal Mail lure is just the latest veneer scammers have applied to an age-old tactic to trick unsuspecting victims into clicking links and parting with their personal details. Scammers go where the opportunities are: fake Covid passports, travel bookings, and charitable donations are some examples that tell us scammers are following consumer behaviour post lockdown.
While it is encouraging to see the police taking positive action, they are facing an uphill battle with limited resources. Remember, the department responsible for this operation (DCPCU) is funded directly by the banks – and it’s a massive undertaking costing the banks a lot of money.
The thing is, we’ll need to see many more of these collaborative types of operations by police and the banks to make a dent in the scammers’ efforts.
There is a way to have more wins in the fight against fraud, and that is by harnessing technology that can risk score thousands of transactions a second, spot anomalies in customer behaviour and prevent the fraud in real-time by identifying suspect ones immediately. The technology is in place at many of the most progressive and forward thinking financial intuitions.
If scams are the disease, then machine-learning technology is a critical part of the cure.
Ultimately, this is our personal responsibility too. We must all think and take time before clicking on links you are sent to ensure they are from who they purport to be from. Don’t share any personal details without being confident who you are dealing with.
Learn more about protecting yourself from Scams here.
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