‘Tis the Season for Fraud Attacks: Banks, Credit Card, and BNPL Hit
Blog post from Socure
Socure’s analysis of Thanksgiving-week activity found increased third-party fraud across banking, credit card, and buy now, pay later applications, while online gaming experienced strong legitimate-user growth with low attack rates. Banking saw a 67% rise in new-account third-party attacks before Thanksgiving, alongside sharp increases in risky tumbling-created emails, spam-linked IP addresses, and IPs from OFAC-sanctioned countries. Credit card applications declined on Thanksgiving, but third-party attacks rose 23%, with signals including address–Social Security number mismatches, unusual Social Security numbers, new emails, inactive phones, and anonymous VPN use, particularly among applicants aged 21 to 34. BNPL fraud also increased from Thanksgiving onward, often involving Social Security numbers linked to multiple identities or addresses and new email accounts, with the highest risky scores among those aged 21 to 24. In contrast, online gaming applications jumped 166% on Thanksgiving while fraud rates remained low, including among younger users, and email quality improved among applicants over 50. The findings emphasize that holiday staffing gaps, high-volume shopping periods, and major sports events can create opportunities for fraudsters, making cross-institutional data analysis, identity-based risk assessment, preventive controls, and adequate peak-period staffing important defenses.
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