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10 n e w h a v e n B I Z | O c t o b e r 2 0 2 1 | n e w h a v e n b i z . c o m alone and have lost an estimated $480 million since March 2020. e number of identity thes, which had been rising steadily over the past three years, more than doubled to 1.4 million from 2019 to 2020, Alite Group data shows. As cybercrime and fraud numbers escalate, banks and other financial institutions are under more pressure to not only educate business clients and consumers about identity the and fraud prevention, but also provide tools — like account monitoring — to warn clients if their personal or business data is at risk. Frank Rudewicz, who oversees investigations for fraud, forensic accounting, asset tracing and other litigation for accounting firm ClionLarsonAllen (CLA), says the landscape of banking-related fraud has evolved dramatically over the past few decades, driven by the explosion of online banking and payment apps like Venmo, which provide more opportunities for criminals to create fraudulent accounts with stolen information. "irty years ago, [fraud] preventative measures were mostly geared towards check fraud," Rudewicz said. But between social media targets, phishing emails and ransomware attacks that hijack personal or business data, cybercrime has become a cottage industry. And it's been fueled over the past year by hundreds of billions of dollars in COVID-related funding that has been dispersed through unemployment benefits, federal stimulus checks, and the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP), which have been heavily targeted by fraudsters and cybercriminals. And it wasn't just pandemic-related payments that were targeted for profit; health scams also rose related to websites selling at-home COVID vaccinations, vaccination surveys promising rewards in exchange for shipping and handling fees, at-home coronavirus testing and inexpensive health insurance for work-from-home jobs. Remote work itself has also been a factor, Rudewicz says, in the rise of identity the and cybercrime because workers are more likely to have their networks open for longer during the day. "Many remote employees, [even if they're not working], have their networks open," Rudewicz explained. "ey may log off at 4 p.m. but log back on at 9 p.m. so the network is more vulnerable because it's open additional hours during the day." Additionally, the increase in emails via remote work has created more opportunities for phishing attacks, which can launch computer viruses through a weaponized web link. External, internal threats Another big driver of identity the has been the growth of social media, By Matthew Broderick Scam Identity the, fraud skyrocket amid pandemic, uptick in online activities IMAGE/ADOBE STOCK D uring the past year and a half, the pace of our online lives accelerated — from remote work and Zoom meetings to virtual charity events and online shopping, which increased nearly 33% during the pandemic to a record-setting $791 billion, according to Digital Commerce 360 estimates. But it wasn't just online sales setting records — identity the and fraud reached new heights, too. In the past 24 months, according to a PwC global cybercrime and fraud survey, more than $42 billion in fraud-related losses were reported. Additionally, Federal Trade Commission (FTC) numbers show that Americans filed more than half- a-million COVID-19 fraud reports David Sun Alert

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