Cybercrime: Wire transfer fraud
How to stop wire transfer fraud
As the technology used for wire transfers has evolved from telegraphs to smartphones, so have the tactics scammers use to exploit that technology. And those tactics are proving effective, with wire transfer fraud accounting for 39% of business email compromise attempts in 2023.1
What is wire transfer fraud?
Case study: Industry expertise and AI lend security to home mortgage payoffs.
In 2022, the real estate industry lost $446 million to wire transfer fraud. To tackle these cybersecurity threats, the team at CertifID developed a novel solution.6 They identified which steps in the mortgage payoff process were most frequently exploited by scammers. They then used AI and machine learning to create an application that precision-automated those vulnerable processes—saving $37 billion7 in wire transactions and identifying $2.4 billion in suspected instances of wire transfer fraud.8
Best practices and prevention
The success of wire transfer fraud hinges on scammers’ ability to manipulate your staff to gain access to the structure of your financial approvals process. Foiling this longstanding scam depends on your ability to educate your team and strengthen your financial protocols. These steps can help you begin that process.
Strengthen your social engineering fraud prevention training.
Train staff to identify the hallmarks of a phishing attack—and implement protocols for reporting business email compromise (BEC) and other social engineering fraud tactics—as a frontline defense against wire transfer fraud.
Tighten your password processes.
If scammers fail to trick teammates, they often turn to password theft. To frustrate these efforts, implement strong password creation protocols, enact regularly scheduled employee password changes, and adopt multifactor authentication software.
Double down on your approval processes.
Dual control is a protocol requiring more than one authorized employee to approve any financial transfer. Pair it with mandatory follow-up communications—to verified emails and phone numbers—to increase your chances of halting fraudulent transfers.
Rethink your network architecture.
Segment off financial systems from other portions of your network and restrict approval privileges to a limited number of people.
Use new tech to fortify your defenses.
Consider implementing AI and machine learning to help your IT team proactively identify attempts at password cracking, alert you to suspicious logins, and quickly spot BEC attempts.
Turn to trusted providers.
Truist provides and maintains secure online banking transfer options, including wire transfers. Our efforts to ensure secure user ID and password protection for every transaction are just part of our commitment to fighting fraud.
FAQs on wire transfer fraud
