Scammers only need 20 seconds of recorded speech to create a duplicate voice they can use to spoof calls and get money. “With [artificial intelligence], you can actually copy voices,” says Jessica Catti, senior vice president and marketing director at FineMark National Bank & Trust.
Digital threats don’t stop there. AI also can assist threat actors, or people who intentionally cause harm within the cyber realm, in setting up email domains.
“They can set up entire email domains and start sending multiple phishing campaigns out in a day, and they do these rapidly,” says Andrea Quinn, cybersecurity administrator at FineMark. “The emails that we are receiving from threat actors are becoming more sophisticated.”
In 2023, imposter scams were the No. 1 type of fraud in the Cape Coral-Fort Myers and Naples-Marco Island metro areas, according to the Federal Trade Commission.
Cybercrime is so common that banks, including FineMark, have created positions such as Quinn’s to monitor threats full time. They also are looking into how to use AI to counteract scams.
“What we could be doing is using AI to analyze data for discrepancies based on patterns,” Quinn says. “That’s a pretty common use case for AI right now: using an algorithm to identify anything abnormal or an oddity, then singling those out for confirmation.”
Quinn said the company has been studying AI for about a year. “That’s the first step. We’ve been reflecting on it and seeing what it is able to do and how it can help us.”
Sanibel Captiva Community Bank’s security systems incorporate AI detection methods. Before, the bank used rules and policies to detect abnormal behavior within its security system software, but with machine-learning capabilities, it can detect multiple threats across platforms.
“Having AI integration takes the patterns that are happening on a system in real time, and it will correlate all those patterns and realize, ‘OK, something is going on here. I’m going to block that,’” says Jonathan Ruiz, senior vice president and director of information technology. “With AI, we don’t necessarily have to create a ton of rules as much. We still do have some manual ones, but it’s just to learn and keep track.”
Don’t expect robots to take over human contact. Personal touch provides more protection from scams that fall through AI’s grasp.
“On the cyber-security side, people are our weakest link right now,” Ruiz says. “We can implement millions of dollars of technology and security, but training people is probably the biggest thing.”
As scam capabilities advance with automation, a wider population falls prey to them. “It’s happening to every demographic,” Catti says. “It’s not just an elderly demographic that may not know technology. We have had very successful businesspeople who have had questionable things happen. You have to be vigilant.”
People can do a few basic things to guard themselves: Exercise caution with emails and websites, don’t click on unknown links, be wary of “too good to be true” scenarios, never share passwords and use multifactor authentication on all accounts.
Another crucial thing to understand is that a bank’s multistep process for navigating major transactions is for a client’s added protection. Wire fraud continues to run rampant, with consumers losing more than $10 billion to fraud in 2023, up 14% from 2022, according to Federal Trade Commission data.
“We don’t accept phone calls from customers to do a wire transfer,” says Lana Hollier, senior vice president and director of deposit operations for Sanibel Captiva. “We always initiate it to a known number in our system, and it takes a signature to change it.”
Banks may even ask for more information if client communication seems off.
“We are very high-touch with our clientele, so if the conversation seems odd and they’re not sure of their responses, we start asking more personal things,” Quinn says. The bank also will call clients back on a known number.
Customers must be certain about who they’re getting on the other end of the line.
“A lot of times, we will tell them, ‘I don’t want you to tell me information. This is my name. Please hang up, go look up the number to the bank and please ask for me, and then you’re going to know that you’re speaking to me,’” Hollier says. “You would be surprised at what people just give out over the phone, thinking they’re talking to someone at the bank.”
As AI capabilities expand, banks and consumers can work together to combat misuse.
“It’s an ongoing conversation about what’s out there, what are the threats and what can we do to prevent those threats from happening,” Catti says.
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