Looking back at 2013, it was the year of the mass retailer data compromise for many of us in the in the payment card fraud space. With the year coming to a close, I can’t help but wonder what next year’s fraud targets will be. Data breaches and cyber attacks on social networking and bargain shopper websites have delivered a few unpleasant surprises in recent history—will they still be viable threats in 2014? Could a new threat vector be on our horizon?
Here are some of my predictions for the top fraud threats of 2014:
- Counterfeit card skimming will continue to flourish in the US as criminals attempt to take advantage of the time period leading up to the US adoption of chip and PIN (EMV) technology.
- Consumers will continue to expose themselves to fraud through unprotected mobile devices.
- As more and more companies utilize smartphone apps, fraudsters will spoof those applications and post them in unlikely places to lure unsuspecting consumers into downloading a rogue app.
- Card-not-present (CNP) fraud will continue to grow as fraudsters gravitate to the anonymous internet to perpetrate fraudulent transactions.
- Cross-border fraud involving payment cards from non-US countries will continue to invade the US market, as more and more countries become fully compliant with new chip technology that prevents fraud spend from happening in EMV-compliant regions.
- Healthcare data breaches will continue to be strong threats as smaller, less protected entities are targeted. Those breaches may very well end up impacting those of us in the banking space. (If you are curious to learn about the latest healthcare data losses, visit the US Department of Health & Human Services website.)
Have any fraud predictions of your own? Let me know by posting them in our comment section. Happy New Year!
