Fraud Management & Cybercrime , ID Fraud , Social Media

Social Media Account Hijacking Surge Tied to Banking Fraud

The Identity Theft Resource Center has released its first-ever look at trends in identity based on information from victims that contact the ITRC. The "2021 Trends in Identity Report" finds a 1,044% increase in social media account hijacking and a rise in new financial accounts opened in a victim's name versus criminals accessing existing financial accounts.

See Also: 2024 Threat Hunting Report: Insights to Outsmart Modern Adversaries

In recent years, most account-related scams involved the theft of credentials to access a victim's existing accounts, but that's shifting to scammers opening new accounts in the victim's name without the victims' knowledge, says James E. Lee, the COO of ITRC. This type of fraud is affecting banks and credit card companies with financial losses and creating major problems for victims who often face legal and credit woes.

In this video interview with Information Security Media Group, Lee discusses:

• Highlights of the ITRC's "2021 Trends in Identity Report";
• The latest scams criminals use to coerce people to share information;
• What businesses and consumers can do to protect themselves.

A data protection and technology veteran, Lee is the former executive vice president and company secretary of Irish application security company Waratek and the former senior vice president and chief marketing officer for Atlanta-based data pioneer ChoicePoint, now LexisNexis. He also chaired two working groups for the American National Standards Institute on identity management and privacy and served as a global public affairs and communication executive at International Paper Company.