Banks lost over USD 2 billion to fraudsters in the past year, according to a survey from Gartner, with nearly 2 million Americans losing funds from their checking accounts at an average of USD 1,200 per incident
Online banking is largely responsible for the problem, but the banks are reluctant to ramp their security defenses for fear of alienating customers, Gartner analyst Avivah Litan said in an interview with MSNBC. Given the rise of ‘phishing’, where fraudsters use e-mail to solicit consumers’ financial details for their own ends, banks are under pressure to change their access controls for online checking accounts.
Of the more than 4 million US consumers experiencing checking account takeovers at any one time in recent years, Gartner found half to have been affected in the past year. While 45 per cent of the 141 million US consumers using the Internet, pay bills online, MSNBC reports Litan as saying that criminals often set up a bill payment account so as to pay themselves funds from hijacked accounts. Under federal regulations for electronic transfers, banks are obliged to refund customers, provided notice is given within 60 days of a statement being received, but many institutions are accused of not making this process easy.
MSNBC
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