Credit, debit, and prepaid card fraud shows no signs of retreat, finds the Sixth Annual Fraud Report from IDology, an Atlanta-based identity-verification company. Sixty-seven percent of executive respondents to an IDology survey said card-based fraud is most prevalent among their industries. That compares to 65% in 2017.
Other fraud types increased, with phishing rising to 48% from 29% and synthetic-identity fraud, when a fictional yet-legitimate-appearing identity is created, increased to 42% from 28%.
“While [phishing] is not a new fraud technique, it continues to be an effective one; 93% of security breaches last year can be linked to phishing,” IDology notes in the report, citing Verizon’s 2018 Data Breach Investigation Report. “This year’s rise in the prevalence of phishing is probably driven not only by how widespread it is, but also by increased awareness among risk professionals of the causal link between phishing and breaches.”