Any type of fraud has the potential to impact businesses in numerous ways, but account takeover is one of the most damaging. From customer churn to reputation damage, fraudsters can make a mess of business operations and drain valuable resources. Chargebacks, transaction disputes, and lost revenue are a few of the major effects of this growing threat.

Fraudsters typically use stolen credentials obtained from data breaches, phishing scams, or other social engineering attacks. These credentials may include usernames, passwords, email addresses, and phone numbers. Criminals then use automated bots to test a large number of username and password combinations on popular travel, retail, banking, ecommerce, and social media sites to determine which ones are valid. Once validated, the fraudsters then sell these credentials on the dark web or repurpose them to take over other accounts.

Detecting Online Account Takeover: Signs and Solutions

Detect Online Account Takeovers can be difficult because fraudsters try to blend in with the behavior of authentic customers. This is why it is important to monitor low signals that could indicate fraudulent activity. For example, unusual login traffic (such as spikes during off-peak hours) or a change in a customer’s personal information is a good indicator that an account has been taken over.

Fortunately, businesses can bolster security and mitigate the impact of account takeover by implementing multi-factor authentication (MFA), which requires more than just a password to verify a user. Enhanced security also allows businesses to set up alerts for changes in shipping or payment information that could indicate an account has been compromised.

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