Identifying patterns in fraud
May 25, 2022
NICE Actimize’s 2022 Fraud Insights Report takes a look at the patterns fraudsters presented during 2021, wreaking havoc on several financial institutions.
Fraud has been on the rise for years now, and it seems it’s not likely to slow down any time soon, as the study found a 41% increase in fraud attempts compared to the previous year. Nearly half of which are card-not-present transactions.
Leveraging AI, which utilizes Federated Learning techniques and collective intelligence to spot emerging threats and suspicious patterns of activity, the report was created by analyzing billions of banking and payments transactions representing over $110 trillion in value.
- Payments Cards and Mobile
The data includes patterns in ACH, wires, checks, credit card and P2P, and identified the latter as being the biggest challenge in 2022, as digital transactions are on the rise.

The study shows that android devices other than Samsung have twice the attempted fraud rate when compared to other devices. The vulnerability of older devices, regardless of brand, is also illustrated; they are preferred by fraudsters as they are both easier and cheaper to infiltrate. The study shows that any device or operating system made before 2016 is three times more at risk of fraud attempts compared to newer models.
To strengthen fraud and device-based risk strategies, FSOs must add risk signals associated with older versions of mobile OSs and device models – especially devices that don’t support higher mobile data bandwidths of 4G and above. Segmentation of devices and OSs based on their age could also prove to be helpful.
- Payments Cards and Mobile
Apple Pay seems to be targeted by fraudsters as its use continues rising in the digital payment landscape.
Among other things, Apple Pay provides information for banks to do as they will with the authorization of new cards, and fraudsters have identified which banks have less security when registering with stolen identity information.
Phishing scams are on the rise as well, as your Apple-ID is the gateway to anything Apple-related, including any information stored on the cloud.
A diligent authentication mechanism for Apple Pay enrolment events, such as asking for a one-time password (OTP) sent on a registered mobile number, could significantly suppress these attacks.
- Payments Cards and Mobile

These findings are not exactly shocking; as more people switch to cards-not-present payment methods, the more fraudsters try to exploit it. Phishing scams and Account Takeovers are not slowing down anytime soon, but there are some measures banks and consumers can take in order to reduce it.
Want to learn more? Check out Payments Cards and Mobile’s full write-up of the report here.
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