Concerns Raised About More Financial Frauds Due to New COVID-19 Stimulus
On February 24th, the U.S. Department of the Treasury released a report through FinCEN.gov (1) raising concerns about a projected increase in financial fraud once the new stimulus bill is passed and implemented.
The Economic Impact Payments, which are part of the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act, and the Coronavirus Response and Relief Supplemental Appropriations Act of 2021 are intended to provide economic relief from the pandemic.
However, the U.S. Treasury’s notes there is also an opportunity for fraudsters to have another shot at illegal enrichment with more ways to commit financial crimes in the chaos of the pandemic.
Be on The Lookout for Suspicious Activity
Here are some items to be on the lookout for as The U.S. Treasury calls renewed attention to financial crimes.
- Issuing Fraudulent Checks
- Altered Checks
- Counterfeit Checks
- Theft of Economic Impact Payments (EIP) through cybercrime and actual checks
- Excessive Deposits of EIP
- Unemployment Fraud
- Cybercrime such as phishing, malware, extortion
- Ransom ware that holds your computer up for ransom payments
- Imposter scams such as unsolicited communications from fake government posers
- Money Laundering
- Account Takeovers due to leaked or ill-gotten account information
- Identity theft such as stolen Social Security numbers
This is just a partial list of financial crimes. There are hundreds of financial schemes and scams ongoing, too numerous to list here. It is advised to review the FinCEN Advisory and Notices recently issued to review more.
The Time to Take Action is Now
The scale and scope of financial fraud has grown significantly due to the billions of government funds flowing through the economy. This situation makes it even more crucial that your organization take the steps to detect and protect against financial fraud and cybercrime.
The optimal solution is for companies to immediately implement advanced transactional Artificial Intelligence. The leader in this area is ToolCASE.
ToolCASE offers the banking industry and all transactional companies a suite of software products that provide real-time risk management for fraud detection and protection. What makes ToolCASE especially relevant to business are these two key factors:
1) ToolCASE offers significant depth and breadth of service to a broad range of industries including Financial Services, Airlines, Retail, Ecommerce, Government, Healthcare and Medical, Manufacturing, Energy and Transportation.
2) ToolCASE offers four vital AI driven products: their proprietary RembrandtAI, RembrandtX, Informant and US3. Working together (think “belt and suspenders”) you are fully protected in real-time against a wide range of fraud and malfeasance.
You can learn more about ToolCASE by contacting a representative at 1-888-ToolCASE (866-2273) or visiting https://toolcase.com/contact-us/index.html. A representative will be in touch to offer you a free DEMO, pricing, or discuss your support needs.
(1) FinCEN.gov is the bureau within the Treasury with the mission to protect our financial system from illegal use, money laundering as well as protect national security in the financial area. For a more information you can visit https://www.fincen.gov/what-we-do and learn about the US Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network.
