A couple of weeks ago we reported on a Juniper Research study which was projecting that eCommerce, airline ticketing, money transfer, and banking services will cumulatively lose more than $200 billion to online payment fraud between 2020 and 2024. We have a distinct feeling this figure will have to be revised. Upwards.
A climate of fear around health and a deep sense of economic uncertainty has seen a huge increase in the numbers of cybercriminals and con artists using current events and the associated public interest as a veil to ply their trade, carrying out ever more brazen scams and malicious cyber activity.
We saw a report from the National Fraud Intelligence Bureau (NFIB) in the UK which cited specific examples that included the fraudulent sale of protective masks and romance fraud, where scammers claim to need money to fund their hospital treatment for coronavirus. At a time when all need to join together, we unfortunately also need to be aware of bad actors more than ever.
Increased security, in demand
Brands too are adjusting fast to the new reality: some are having to scramble to scale up to meet the huge boost in the likes of online shopping and gaming due to people self-isolating. Nintendo and Microsoft’s Xbox online gaming platforms have both faced technical outages due to unprecedented demand and usage. Amazon announced that they were looking for 100,000 more workers to meet the surge in orders.
Hand in hand with increasing online purchase transactions and activities comes to increased fraud. In response, two-factor authentication (2FA) requirements have skyrocketed and we are seeing its use expanded to encompass ever more use cases of late.
Trusted communications
As we turn to the online world more and more, we also remove the element of face-to-face communication entirely. Sprinkle in some distance, add a pinch of anonymity and this all creates the perfect recipe for obfuscation. Determining what is real or not is getting harder in this information age, chock-full of ‘noise’.
Ensuring things remain objective and people receive accurate information in a timely manner — from trusted sources — is becoming an uphill battle. The benefits of sending short, clear communications using mobile channels that drive huge levels of engagement have never been clearer.
Given its ubiquity and the fact that 98% of them are actually read (the majority within 3 minutes), SMS is the perfect vehicle for ensuring the facts reach people rapidly, and all in an easily digested format. The use cases for new features like Verified SMS from Google will be broad. Cool heads prevail.
Healthcare budgets are not bottomless pits and pressure on them has never been this high in peacetime. Mitto powers the communications of numerous companies and organizations looking after our health and wellbeing, with plenty more switching on to the benefits of SMS and other messaging channels. Remember the old adage, ‘prevention is better than cure’? Never have truer words been said.
Readiness and support
At Mitto, our mission is to enable innovative and unified lines of communication that facilitate people’s lives — anywhere in the world, at any time. We are built to withstand challenges large and small and we are at full capacity to employ our platform in the delivery of valuable reliable information and security of accounts throughout this situation.
For inquiries on enabling solutions to help combat the impact of COVID-19 with trusted communications and account security, please reach out to our team today at coronavirus@mitto.ch.
