According to TransUnion's new research, suspected ghost broker was the top type of fraud in the insurance sector from Jan-May 2021. (Source: Shutterstock)
Fraud attempts targeting the financial services industry have spiked since the beginning of 2021, according to a new report from TransUnion. Compared to the last four months of 2020, the percentage of suspected global digital fraud attempts in financial services increased 149% during the first four months of this year.
In the U.S. specifically, financial services fraud attempts increased 109%, the global information and insights company said. The top type of fraud targeting financial services was true identity theft, which TransUnion defined as when a consumer uses a stolen identity to commit fraud, with the victim being a real person. For the insurance industry, suspected ghost broker fraud was the top type of fraud Transunion detected during the research period.
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Natasha Chilingerian
Natasha Chilingerian has been immersed in the credit union industry for over a decade. She first joined CU Times in 2011 as a freelance writer, and following a two-year hiatus from 2013-2015, during which time she served as a communications specialist for Xceed Financial Credit Union (now Kinecta Federal Credit Union), she re-joined the CU Times team full-time as managing editor. She was promoted to executive editor in 2019. In the earlier days of her career, Chilingerian focused on news and lifestyle journalism, serving as a writer and editor for numerous regional publications in Oregon, Louisiana, South Carolina and the San Francisco Bay Area. In addition, she holds experience in marketing copywriting for companies in the finance and technology space. At CU Times, she covers People and Community news, cybersecurity, fintech partnerships, marketing, workplace culture, leadership, DEI, branch strategies, digital banking and more. She currently works remotely and splits her time between Southern California and Portland, Ore.
