With record amounts of refinance volume, continued purchase activity and millions of people now working remotely due to the COVID-19 pandemic, lenders face an increased risk of fraud.
In a two-week period in April, early in America’s recent work-from-home environment, FundingShield saw a 62% increase in wire instruction errors, documentation errors, perpetuated fraud attempts, phishing attempts, and requests to fund unauthorized/unrelated third-party accounts or accounts unrelated to wiring instructions.
The potential for digital mortgage and title-related fraud grows whenever there is an exchange of data and whenever funds are being transferred.
The shift to working from home has required adjustments and an employee’s remote-work environment may not have the same level of cybersecurity measures in place as the traditional office. For example, the potential use of unsecured networks and Wi-Fi routers with weak encryption creates a higher risk of data breaches.
Additionally, the FBI recently reported a 50% surge in mobile banking since the beginning of 2020 as a result of stay-at-home orders, issuing a public service announcement regarding the potential for increased risk of cyber fraud. Fake banking applications and app-based banking trojans are two techniques cyber actors often employ in fraud, according to the FBI.
During this time of remote work and record loan volumes, lenders need to take the right steps to protect themselves and their borrowers.
FundingShield offers industry-leading fintech B2B and B2B2C fraud prevention solutions that deliver transaction-level coverage against wire and title fraud, settlement risk, closing agent compliance and cyber threats. For more information, visit https://fundingshield.com/ or email sales@fundingshield.com.
