Insurance is among the industries at highest risk for digital fraud
A recent report from TransUnion explores global digital fraud trends across a number of industries.
While instances of global digital insurance fraud shrank slightly (2.2%) from 2020 to 2021, it increased by 11.1% in the United States, says the 2022 Global Digital Fraud Trends Report from TransUnion. The slight dip in global digital insurance fraud in that time period doesn’t mean much, though, as these instances increased 54.3% overall between 2019 and 2021.
Across all industries, TransUnion found insurance saw the fifth-highest numbers for digital fraud attempts from 2020-2021, only being surpassed by the gaming, travel and leisure, telecommunications and financial services industries.
According to TransUnion’s report, many types of digital fraud have skyrocketed, likely due to lockdowns and remote work, which have forced many transactions online and, therefore, opened them up to new threats. Shipping fraud saw the largest increase globally from 2020-2021 (780.5%), followed by business identity theft (113.8%) and identity mining/phishing (104.8%).
“As consumers shifted from brick-and-mortar retailers to e-commerce platforms over the course of the pandemic, fraudsters gravitated toward areas where consumers were increasingly spending both time and money,” Shai Cohen, senior vice president and global head of fraud solutions at TransUnion, said in a press release. “Online shopping has become the ‘new normal’ on a global scale and as a result, the propensity for shipping fraud has also increased.”
The United States saw the largest increases in identity theft (59%), credit card fraud (56%) and account takeover (36%). The United Kingdom experienced similar trends, with their largest increases in digital fraud occurring in identity theft (53%), credit card fraud (49%) and phishing (39%), the report states.
“Fraud continues to impact a variety of different business sectors and fraudsters are always looking for the next opportunity. However there are some industries that continue to have a target on their backs – such as financial services or travel and leisure – that should preemptively employ fraud detection solutions and strategies to better serve customers and protect their bottom line,” Sean Donnelly, senior vice president and go-to-market global fraud solutions at TransUnion, said in a release about the report.
You can download TransUnion’s 2022 Global Digital Fraud Trends Report in its entirety here.