Digital fraud attempts, from identity theft to phishing, are on the rise, up over 25% in early 2021 in the United States and 149% globally, CNBC reports.
The ongoing increase in digital fraud highlights the need for regtech solutions designed to thwart online scammers and protect consumers. Fortunately, the latest regtech solutions are helping businesses maintain regulatory compliance and effectively prevent fraud and financial losses.
Digital Identity Protection
Digital identity theft increased by 68% in 2021, according to the Insurance Information Institute. Fortunately, regtech, like digital identity protection, can help people verify who they claim to be and eliminate the risk of digital identity theft.
Using Regtech Solutions To Protect Businesses
For example, Rabobank, a Dutch multinational banking and financial services company, has teamed up with Signicat to launch a new digital identity service provider: Rabo eBusiness. It provides a host of online login, identity, signature, and archiving solutions for numerous industries, including energy, financial services, insurance, telecoms, and healthcare.
“Consumers can log onto the merchant’s website using one of the identity services provided by Rabo eBusiness and can then, for example, sign a contract online,” the two companies say. “The platform is easy to integrate into the existing business processes using API technology.”
As a result, financial service providers can offer an easy and familiar user experience while ensuring security requirements.
Preventing Romance Scams
Reports of romance scams are reaching record highs, data from the FTC reveals. Consumers lost $547 million in 2021, almost an 80% increase from 2020 and over six times the reported losses in 2017. $2,400 was the median individual reported loss.
Requests for money, extortion, and blackmail, in particular, are the prime romance scams people need to look out for. Therefore people must avoid sharing personal information on dating sites and never send money to anyone they don’t know in real life.
Identity Verification Technology Countering Romance Scams
Moreover, biometric-based identity verification technology also works to prevent online dating scams by ensuring users prove their identity before joining. So, for example, to open a new account, the user is prompted to create a biometric template by taking a photo of their passport (or government-issued ID), followed by a selfie. Advanced facial recognition technology then compares the ID and selfie to verify their identity instantly.
RegTech Solutions Are The Answer
Online fraud attempts are undoubtedly on the rise. Fortunately, cutting-edge regtech solutions are helping businesses prevent cyber fraud and protect consumers.
