Financial fraud scammers have shifted their tactics during the past couple of years in ways that consumers need to understand and learn how to prevent, according to the
Rather than thieves using stolen personal information to take over existing financial accounts, they are instead opening new accounts in the victim’s name, according to the center’s new Trends in Identity report.
More than 60% of people who reported financial fraud to the resource center in 2021 said a new credit card or bank account was established with their identity.
That happens when a bad actor uses personal information stolen in a data breach or collected from a victim who was “tricked into sharing information with criminals,” the report says.
“This trend is disturbing because existing account takeover is more easily detected by victims and easier to dispute than new account fraud, particularly new account fraud involving bank accounts,” it says.
Such cases rose during a time when financial institutions had closed physical locations due to the pandemic, so it became common for them to accept online applications.
That paved the way for scammers to open accounts, which they used to deposit money stolen from the same victim, the center says. Much of that stolen money in 2021 came from the theft of pandemic-related government payments, such as unemployment insurance benefits and stimulus and child tax credit payments.
One victim told the resource…
