Fight Back Against Account Takeover Fraud

Account takeover fraud (ATO) has exploded, costing consumers hundreds of dollars and hours to resolve. A fraudster can quickly empty out a consumer's banking accounts, and once the money is gone, it can be a good deal of time before the consumer gets it back.

Account takeover fraud is a great business model for criminals. A stolen credit card gives fraudsters access to a single account. Armed with the personally identifiable information (PII) widely scattered on the dark web from a myriad of data breaches, fraudsters can use that information to hijack an account. Once they gain access to one account, fraudsters use it to gain access to multiple accounts.

It's tough to catch criminals. They act quickly and often sell the stolen identities to other criminals, introducing another level of anonymity. By changing consumers’ account profiles, fraudsters reroute email, phone and text communications. The SMS text message the financial institution sends to a consumer to verify a change goes right to the criminal. The consumer — and the financial institution —are none the wiser.

Watch this video to gain insight into how account takeover fraud occurs, and how "unstealable" device data from TransUnion can help prevent it.