Law 2.0 Conference Reviews Authorized Push Payment Fraud In The Legal Profession

Every day, we read about how more and more people are becoming victims of online fraud. According to experts from the best legal conferences, the number of fraud victims is increasing exponentially and to the point where some commentators have dubbed it an issue of "academic” concern

Unfortunately, COVID-19 has exacerbated the problem, with the general uncertainty created by the pandemic increasing consumer susceptibility.

Given the connections between fraud, organized crime, and terrorism, it should be no surprise that fraudsters are becoming more creative in defrauding thousands of consumers out of millions of dollars each year. Acknowledging the severity of the issue, professionals at law conferences and events, such as the Law 2.0 Conference, will focus on how fraudsters have increasingly turned to the Internet to make their scams more convincing.

What Is Authorized Push Payment Fraud, According To Law 2.0 Conference’s Experts?

As reviewed and discussed by Law 2.0 Conference’s visionaries, authorized push payment fraud is becoming one of the most common types of fraud these days. An authorized push payment typically occurs when a customer informs their bank to transfer money electronically to another party. These instructions are often given online, in-person, via text message, or through mobile apps.

APP fraud occurs when a customer transfers money from their account to a fraudster's account, whether knowingly or unknowingly.

This usually happens in the following ways:

The unsuspecting customer is tricked into paying the fraudster when they think they are talking to someone trustworthy, such as a police officer, bank official, or even their financial institution.

The customer intends to make a payment to a legitimate recipient but is tricked into making the payment to an imposter. For instance, someone intercepts an invoicing email from a company they are expecting and replaces it with fraudulent information such as bank account numbers or other contact info/

Fraudsters will transfer the funds from an account once they receive them. Oftentimes, these funds go overseas, where tracking them down is hard. This is also difficult when customers don't report fraud immediately because of how long it takes to realize what happened or if it happens too quickly after the incident.

Addressing This Issue

Given the growing number of APP fraud victims, representatives from the banking industry (including banks and customer action groups) collaborated in 2018 to create an industry-wide code to increase customer protection in the hope of reducing APP scams and reducing their impact on customers. This resulted in the Contingent Reimbursement Model Code for Authorized Push Payment Scams in May 2019 (the CRM Code).

Impact Of CRM On Banking Clients

Experts at the Law 2.0 Conference reviewed that the CRM Code compensates APP fraud victims who fulfilled all their obligations. In essence, if a customer is the victim of APP fraud and has not acted recklessly or negligently, they should be eligible for compensation from the bank.

Final Thoughts

Although industry bodies are increasingly calling for all banks to do more to prevent APP fraud and compensate customers, it is clear that banks cannot fight this battle alone. An important focus must be on preventing fraudsters from communicating with the customer.

Every day, fraudsters target customers via email, phone calls, texts, and social media (to name a few), frequently providing false or misleading information. With this in mind, law conferences in Dubai, such as the Law 2.0 Conference, will attempt to contribute to the ongoing fight against APP fraud with the help of insightful discussions with numerous experts worldwide.