When it comes to fraud, older generations are less likely to commit it and fall victim to it according to Sift, the AI-powered fraud platform. 

In its latest findings, Q1 2024 Digital Trust & Safety Index, Sift has uncovered that 33 per cent of Gen Z survey respondents either have, or know someone who has participated in payment fraud. This is compared to only 10 per cent of Baby Boomers. Additionally, 34 per cent of Gen Z consumers have seen offers to participate in online fraud, compared to only nine per cent of Baby Boomers.

“These generational divides are blurring the line between bad actor and consumer,” said Kevin Lee, VP of trust and safety at Sift. “Younger generations are composed of digital natives who are both facing troubling levels of economic anxiety and tend to be more trusting of digital spaces – often at the expense of their online security.

“They’re also exposed more often to offers to participate in fraud schemes. These converging factors mean merchants and payment processors have to think differently about the full spectrum of risk and how to stay ahead of it.”

Fraud Industry Benchmarking Resource

In addition to surveying consumers, the Q1 Digital Trust & Safety Index relies on data from the Fraud Industry Benchmarking Resource (FIBR), an online tool powered by Sift. It allows anyone to access key fraud metrics across industries, geographies, and time. The report explores payment fraud increases across key verticals, payment attack rates for top card issuers, and shifts in consumer buying behaviour due to trends in payment fraud.

For example, findings indicate that fraudsters are turning their focus to high-velocity transactions in the hopes of staying undetected. Across the Sift Global Data Network in 2023, specific industries experienced major spikes in attempted payment fraud: iGaming saw a 93 per cent increase, ticketing saw a 68 per cent increase, food ordering and delivery saw a 53 per cent increase, and retail saw a 46 per cent increase.

Industry reports indicate that globally, merchant losses due to payment fraud reached $38billion in 2023. They are expected to soar to a cumulative total of $362billion by 2028.

Evolving consumer attitudes

The start of 2024 brought increased economic pressure to both consumers and businesses, driven by persistent inflation and high-interest rates. This economic anxiety has led to a shift towards value-seeking behaviour. Shoppers are now preferring to purchase cheaper goods and services and “dupes” over premium brands. The macroeconomic backdrop is expected to remain unpredictable, with global events creating turbulence and increasing the likelihood of scams—many of which could be upleveled by generative AI.

Findings from Sift’s survey of 1,052 adults (aged 18+) across the United States in February 2024 highlight the impact of digital risk on economic uncertainty. It reveals that the increased threat of AI-powered fraud is already influencing consumers’ online shopping behaviour.

In fact, 30 per cent of those surveyed shop online less frequently due to the cybersecurity threats posed by artificial intelligence. Furthermore, 76 per cent would stop using or shopping on a site where they had been a victim of payment fraud. With 43 per cent of consumers saying they have been a victim of payment fraud at least once in the past 18 months, there’s potential for a meaningful impact to businesses’ revenue if the industry fails to get ahead of payment fraud attacks.

“As consumer spending habits evolve and fraud becomes supercharged by AI, businesses need to fight fire with fire, and leverage AI to their own advantage. It’s a necessary piece in the growing challenge of delivering consumer experiences that are seamless and secure,” concluded Lee.

One in three nations has begun its own open banking journey – with over 65 national open banking programmes globally; according to a new study from the open finance technology and advisory services provider, Konsentus.

Konsentus has updated its Global Open Banking and Open Finance Map to include richer data on the evolution of open banking worldwide. The update finds that open banking, the new wave of financial data access, has reached a significant milestone, with 68 countries (representing around 35 per cent of the world) having either live or in development programmes.

The Konsentus study highlights that there is a clear regulatory push towards open banking, with 64 per cent of open banking initiatives being mandatory via legislation. Only four markets are currently pursuing a market-led approach and 26 per cent of initiatives lack formal regulation but have strong regulatory support and a centralised program approach.

How is open banking advancing across Asia?

In Asia, the ‘hybrid’ approach has started to emerge as popular. This approach essentially sees collaboration between the regulators and the market, without any formal regulation. However, the analysis shows there is no ‘one size fits all’, with each jurisdiction taking a slightly different approach to their implementation to meet local requirements.

Asia also boasts a wide range of open banking and open finance programmes that are already live. Hong Kong, Japan, South Korea, China and Singapore all have some element of programmes in the space that are already live.

A key region to watch is the fourteen countries that make up the Eastern Europe and Central Asian Network (EECAN), with over 50 per cent of the network having a live or active program. Asia, and in particular Southeast Asia, is also ramping up activity and by 2025 this region will likely include new jurisdictions throughout 2024.

Mike Woods, CEO of Konsentus, discussed the global findings: “Given that open banking is in its infancy, the fact that 35 per cent of the world is pursuing an open banking program is testament to its relevance and importance in the global financial digitisation agenda. We anticipate this number will continue to grow and that open banking testing and implementation will intensify in 2024.

“Konsentus has become much more rigorous in its criteria for this important asset to reflect the real development on the ground. As such, we have introduced a hybrid category as well as showcasing which markets are open banking versus open finance versus open data. The map will provide a valuable guide for the industry to track progress and spot new developments.”

Reddit’s r/CryptoCurrency community has fired two moderators who were found to be involved in insider trading of the Moons (MOON) token, Cointelegraph has confirmed.

As Cointelegraph reported on Oct. 20, at least three wallets linked to Reddit group moderators dumped hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of MOON tokens on Oct. 18, just minutes before the official announcement of the closure of the blockchain-based points program that involved the use of certain cryptocurrencies native to each community. The market dump by the three wallets was highlighted by on-chain analysis accounts on X (formerly Twitter), such as Lookonchain.

1/ Three @CCMOD_ moderators dumped $MOON in advance via #inside information from @Reddit admins. pic.twitter.com/ucrPkh6siX

— Lookonchain (@lookonchain) October 19, 2023

The Reddit moderators were made aware of the closure of the blockchain-based points program an hour earlier than the official announcement. The Reddit announcement caused the token to drop by nearly 85% to $0.0198, but two moderators managed to sell just in time to make more gains than the rest of the unaware community.

Related: Reddit community tokens soar on Kraken listing

Cointelegraph reached out to r/CryptoCurrency to understand the insider trading allegations and how the investigation went through. U/mellon, a core contributor and MoonDust founder, told Cointelegraph that two moderators were removed while three others are being investigated:

“2 mods got removed, as they sold their Moons before the official announcement from Reddit: u/rider_of_the_strom u/McGillby.”

The program allowed participants on the platform to earn points and spend them using community-native crypto tokens such as MOON. In the r/CryptoCurrency subreddit, users who post or leave comments are given the ERC-20 token MOON, which they can freely exchange, tip or use for other purposes in the community.

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