Vintage 2023: Looking Back on the Fraud that Shaped the Year

2023 will be remembered by SentiLink as the year when fraudsters moved forward by looking back. Yes, new fraud tactics and M.O.s challenged our Fraud Intelligence Team and led to robust model updates. And to meet the evolving needs of our partners' risk teams, we launched a new attributes product, SentiLink Facets. But the trend that became top-of-mind for so many of our partners -- from banks to credit unions and fintechs -- was first party fraud, especially that related to checking accounts. "The Rise in Check Fraud" was a recurring headline in the news throughout the year, representing the "what's old is new again" sentiment that took hold throughout 2023.

Join our panel of experts for a look back on the highs and lows of 2023 through the eyes of fraud fighters where they'll discuss topics including:

The continued use and evolution of common fraud tactics

• Phone-related patterns we observed in identity theft attacks.
• Naming convention tricks fraudsters used to trick IDV systems.
• Synthetic fraud hitting the auto lending industry.

Synthetic fraud hitting the auto lending industryNew behaviors that emerged this year

• Some "Mt. Rushmore of Fraud"-worthy synthetic cases that wowed our risk team.
• New phone number tactics utilizing unassigned numbers, and fraudsters ramping up use of tech, like residential proxies, to mask their location.
• Noteworthy spike in J1 fraud.

The resurrection of old tricks and tactics

• Fraud impacting deposit accounts was a major issue. Check washing and plain old theft from the mail plagued FIs.
• "Credit boost" scams continued to proliferate.

Looking ahead: researching new fraud frontiers 

• Our new research and product initiatives launched this year to help our partners adapt to the rise in first party fraud.
• Breadcrumbs left behind by fraudsters help to reveal patterns of bad behavior.
• Looking into phone histories to help catch money mule activity.