As many businesses and consumers have been forced to deal with the difficult conditions thrust upon them by the COVID-19 pandemic, so too have fraudsters needed to make adjustments just to continue their life of crime.
The “new normal” of COVID-19-influenced retail is actively being exploited by fraudsters, as LexisNexis Risk Solutions finds fraud costs for U.S. retailers rising in 2020 by 7.3% over last year’s data.
Discover transitioned all of its 8,000 U.S.-based call center personnel to work from home within a matter of days after the U.S. declared a national emergency on March 13. By March 20, Discover had 95% of its agents working from home using a thin-client device to emulate their call center desktops.
The coronavirus e-commerce push is likely to be permanent as consumers get used to digital payments, but that also gives rise to new fraud threats.
The potential for fraud fueled by the coronavirus pandemic, coupled with the anticipation of a $2 trillion stimulus, is creating such a lucrative opportunity for scammers that Visa and the Secret Service are predicting a wave of unprecedented levels of fraud.
The U.K.’s growing panic about the spread of coronavirus has created an open season for fraudsters, with government agencies and cybersecurity companies reporting unprecedented levels of criminal activity since the virus began sweeping across the globe in January.