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Arkose Labs New Intelligence Report Reveals Mounting Economic Gains for Fraudsters, with "Wages" Spiking to $600,000 a month
SAN MATEO, Calif., May 18, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Arkose Labs, the global leader in fraud deterrence and account security, today released new insights, shining a light into the corners of the expanding global fraud economy. Data in the Q2 2022 State of Fraud & Account Security report shows specific attack attempts skyrocketed, fraud "employment" increased tenfold, and fraud returns for the "Master Fraudster" can be 8X higher than salaries for CEOs leading legitimate companies. . 75% of attacks aimed at fintech companies were zeroed in on consumer logins. "The ROI for cyberattacks is greater than ever, so fraudsters are willing to invest more energy in the right mix of tools and resources to be successful and turn profits," said Kevin Gosschalk, founder and CEO of Arkose Labs. "Our intelligence shows that bot attacks are mimicking human behavior enough to evade security measures and leading to new monetization techniques. Evolving bot and human-led attacks increasingly target fintech, gaming, and technology companies. Simple automation is a thing of the past as attackers have proven to be quick learners and continue to find ways to sabotage businesses to increase their personal wealth." New Arkose Labs intelligence reveals key findings about hot fraud attack trends, which increase the likelihood of growing profits for fraudsters:
Nearly 33% of Cybercrime Losses Come from Online Consumer Account-Based Fraud Cybercrime is big business. Cybersecurity Ventures estimates that the global cybercrime industry will reach more than $10 trillion by 2025. In the U.S. the FBI Internet Crime Complaint Center calculated cybercrime losses equaled $6.9 billion in 2021, which represents the latest available data. Online consumer account-based fraud attacks contribute to that figure. In fact, consumer account-based fraud types reported to the FBI total more than $2 Billion, or 29% of the total cybercrime losses declared.1 Table 1:
Consumers' online accounts are a major theater of action in cyber warfare because they tend to be easy entry points for fraudsters due to legitimate credentials (usernames and passwords) being readily available for sale on Dark Web networks. That's a field day for individual fraudsters. Arkose Labs Chief Criminal Officer, Brett Johnson, notes he has observed people who fall into the "Rookie Fraudster" category earning wages of $20,000 a month by conducting first-party refund fraud, while people who fall into the "Master Fraudster" category can earn up to $600,000 a month, or $7.2 million annually. According to Salary.com, the median CEO annual salary in the U.S. is a little more than $790,000. In comparison, Master Fraudster "wages" are 800% more than legitimate business leaders. Fraud Employment Outpaces Cybersecurity Jobs Cybersecurity may be the only industry that has had sustained zero unemployment for years. According to the (ISC)2 Cybersecurity Workforce Study 2021, 4.19 million people are employed in the cybersecurity industry globally – impressive but not enough, as 2.72 million unfilled jobs exist. The labor shortage in cybersecurity continues to put companies at risk, especially because the number of people entering cybercrime as a career is growing faster than companies can hire and train cybersecurity employees. Not only are fraudster "wages" increasing, as demonstrated in the above section, but job growth among fraudsters is rampant. According to Johnson, the number of career fraudsters has increased tenfold since 2019, more than outnumbering the 4.19 million cybersecurity workforce. Table 2:
Arkose Labs has defined two primary categories of fraudsters, based on extensive observations of dark web communities and behavioral data from the Arkose Labs Global Network™. Table 3:
"Rookie Fraudsters move into the Master Fraudster category due to the vast information sharing of attack techniques on the dark web," said Johnson. "Marketplace and messaging platforms have become popularized in the fraud community where cybercriminals can promote their own personal fraud business, recommend attack tools and techniques, and offer free step-by-step guides for the Rookie Fraudster. With this widespread information sharing, human fraudsters are capable of using bot tools to attack at scale and Rookie Fraudsters uplevel their attack skills much faster." According to Johnson, the number of active fraudsters has increased 10x since 2019, due in large part because of the "easy money" that could be made from unemployment stimulus programs during the pandemic. "Many Rookie Fraudsters ramped up during the pandemic because of the ROI that could be made." The platform of cybercrime itself is so sophisticated, that a Rookie Fraduster doesn't need to know anything to come in and be profitable. "They can buy a tutorial for $5 or $10, take a live instruction class that runs anywhere from $300 up to $3,500, which teaches the type of fraud they want to focus on; they can watch YouTube videos to perfect their approach, and they can simply ask questions of other fraudsters in dark-web chat channels," Johnson said. The great equalizer between the estimated 15 million fraudsters and the 4.19 million cybersecurity workers is technology. For legitimate companies to protect their consumers' online accounts and prevent fraud, requires companies to invest in technology that works. Today, Arkose Labs provides support for some of the world's most recognized brands and platforms including PayPal, Zilch, Microsoft, Roblox, and Pitney Bowes. Arkose Labs protects industries like fintech, banking, gaming, ecommerce/retail, technology, travel, and social media. About the Report About Arkose Labs Contact 1 It should be noted that figure is likely higher because it is based on fraud crimes that have been reported to the FBI. Many fraud crimes go unreported to the FBI. View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/arkose-labs-new-intelligence-report-reveals-mounting-economic-gains-for-fraudsters-with-wages-spiking-to-600-000-a-month-301549777.html SOURCE Arkose Labs |