Fraud is of more concern to banking leaders today than ever before. This is driven by national media coverage, actual dollar losses, the attack on trust (which is key to customer relationships), costs to allay customer concerns, changing regulatory environment, and changes in how fraud efforts are being organized.

Fraud is no longer just a “cottage industry”, it is moving to an industrial model where specialists steal data and sell it to others who organize high-volume attacks by multiple perpetrators. Banks cannot combat the “Fraud Industry” with yesterday’s methods.

There are reasons to believe that fraud losses are actually higher than recognized. Some fraud losses are buried in card interchange fees. A significant amount of fraud losses likely get reported in banks’ accounting as credit losses. But they weren’t due to poor credit decisions, they were fraud scams from day-one.

Software is widely installed to identify specific patterns and “unusual” transactions. But the fraudsters know this and are constantly striving to create new patterns where their transactions are designed not to be flagged. Like in a game of chess, the advantage goes to the side that thinks the most moves ahead.