AI and ML technologies have made great strides in helping organizations with cybersecurity, as well as with other tasks like chatbots that help with customer service.
Cybercriminals have also made great strides in using AI and ML for fraud.
“Today, fraud can happen without stealing someone else’s identity because fraudsters can create ‘synthetic identities’ with fake, personally identifiable information (PII),” explained Rick Song, co-founder and CEO of Persona, in an email interview. And fraudsters are leveraging new tricks, using the latest technologies, that allow them to slip past security systems and do things like open accounts where they rack up untraceable debt, steal Bitcoin holdings without detection, or simply redirect authentic purchases to a new address.
Some increasingly popular fraud tricks using AI and ML include:
- Deepfakes that mimic live selfies in an attempt to circumvent security systems
- Replicating a template across a dozen or more accounts to create fake IDs (these often use celebrity photos and their public data)
- Mimicking the voice of high-level officials and corporate executives to extort personal information and money
- Chatbots as phishing tools to gather personal information
“With this pace of evolution, companies are left at risk of holding the bag — they are not only losing money directly through things like loans and fees they can’t recoup and any restitution to impacted customers, but they’re also losing trust and credibility. Fraud costs the global economy over $5 trillion every year, but the reputational costs are hard to quantify,” said Song.
How IAM Tools Can Spot and Prevent High Tech Fraud
