May 12, 2025 Martin Bradley
ShareFinancial institutions face an alarming rise in sophisticated scams and account takeover attempts. These malicious activities have become one of the most pressing challenges for banks and financial service providers globally, with devastating consequences for affected customers.
The Growing Threat of Scams and Account Takeover
Recent industry reports reveal that scams and account takeover fraud continue to be among the top issues plaguing the banking sector in 2025. The psychological and financial impact on victims can be severe, with many customers losing significant sums that may never be recovered. Beyond the immediate financial losses, these incidents erode trust in financial institutions and digital banking services.
What makes modern scams particularly insidious is their sophisticated nature. Fraudsters continuously refine their techniques, making traditional detection methods increasingly ineffective. They exploit vulnerabilities in both technology and human psychology, often combining social engineering tactics with technical means to compromise accounts.
Beyond Basic Fraud Detection
While many financial institutions employ fraud detection systems, traditional approaches often fall short when confronting today's complex scam scenarios. Basic rule-based systems struggle to differentiate between legitimate customer behaviour and sophisticated fraud attempts, especially when fraudsters have access to stolen personal information.
At INFORM, we've recognised the need for a more comprehensive approach to combating scams and account takeover. This is where RiskDefender's* Intelligent Individual Dynamic Profiling comes into play as a game-changer.
The Power of Intelligent Individual Dynamic Profiling
RiskDefender* provides real-time fraud protection against scams, account takeover, and identity theft, complementing its primary function as a Transaction Fraud and AML monitoring and Case Management system.
What sets RiskDefender* apart in the scam detection space is its ability to uniquely and intelligently profile all aspects of a person's activity in relation to their banking practices. The system creates a comprehensive digital fingerprint of each customer by analysing:
- Transaction Types: How they typically interact with banking services (ATM, online banking, card transactions, mobile payments)
- Timing Patterns: When they normally conduct transactions
- Device Information: What devices they typically use, along with IP addresses and location data
- Transaction Relationships: Which accounts they regularly transfer to
- Financial Behaviours: Typical transaction amounts and frequency
- Digital Behaviour: Navigation patterns, session characteristics, and other subtle digital footprints
This exhaustive profiling gives financial institutions a nuanced picture of what constitutes "normal" behaviour for each individual customer.
Why "Intelligent" Makes the Difference
While standard profiling typically relies on supervised learning with occasional updates, RiskDefender's* Individual Dynamic Profiling continuously evolves. The knowledge in each customer profile is automatically updated with every transaction and interaction, learning and adapting to gradual changes in behaviour without human intervention.
This dynamic approach allows the system to maintain accuracy even as customers naturally change their banking habits over time. The result is a significant reduction in false positives while maintaining high detection rates for genuine anomalies – a crucial balance in effective fraud prevention.
Real-Time Protection When It Matters Most
When customers initiate transactions or account changes, RiskDefender* evaluates multiple data feeds in real-time, including:
- Financial transaction details
- Online session monitoring (login registration, password requests, user navigation)
- Geo-location and IP address information
- Mobile device details (IMEI, OS version)
- HTTP traffic patterns to detect web anomalies
- Changes in customer demographic data
This multi-faceted approach allows financial institutions to identify potential scams or account takeover attempts within milliseconds – often before transactions are completed enabling – preventative action rather than just post-fraud detection.
Breaking Down Information Silos
One of RiskDefender's* key strengths is its ability to break down information silos by cohesively sharing data across different business segments. This integrated approach prevents inefficiencies and duplication of efforts, creating a unified defence against financial crime.
The system's powerful Business Intelligence capabilities deliver configurable dashboards to analyse alerts and key performance indicators, helping fraud teams uncover hidden patterns and unusual behaviours that might indicate coordinated scam attempts.
*Please note that RiskDefender (under this name) is only available in Australia . In the rest of the world this software is known and distributed as "RiskShield". However, the software solution itself is identical.
About our Expert
Martin Bradley
Head of Sales Asia Pacific | Risk & Fraud
