All it takes is a 20-second recording to create a fake voice recording and then use it to steal money. [artificial intelligence]”You can actually copy the audio,” says Jessica Cutty, senior vice president and marketing director at FineMark National Bank & Trust.
Digital threats don't stop there: AI can also help threat actors — people who purposefully cause harm in the cyber realm — set up email domains.
“They can set up an entire email domain and start sending out multiple phishing campaigns in a single day, and they can do it quickly,” said Andrea Quinn, cybersecurity manager at FineMark. “The emails we're receiving from threat actors are becoming more and more sophisticated.”
It was the most common type of fraud in the Cape Coral-Fort Myers and Naples-Marco Island metropolitan areas in 2023, according to the Federal Trade Commission.
Cybercrime is so common that banks, including FineMark, are creating roles like Quinn's to constantly monitor for threats, and they are also looking at how to use AI to combat fraud.
“What we can do is use AI to analyze data for inconsistencies based on patterns,” Quinn says. “This is a pretty common use case for AI today: using algorithms to identify anomalies or oddities and single them out for review.”
Quinn said the company has been looking into AI for about a year: “This is the first step. We've been thinking deeply about AI and what it can enable and how it can help us.”
Sanibel Captiva Community Bank's security system now incorporates AI detection techniques. Previously, they used rules and policies to detect anomalous behavior within their security system software, but machine learning capabilities now allow them to detect multiple threats across the platform.
“With AI integration, we're taking the patterns that are happening on our systems in real time and correlating all of those patterns to realize, 'Something's going on. Let's block this,'” says Jonathan Lewis, senior vice president and director of information technology. “With AI, we don't have to create a ton of rules. We still have some rules that we create manually, but it's just to learn and keep track.”
Don't expect robots to take away human contact, which offers more protection from scams that AI can't control.
“People are currently the weakest link in cybersecurity,” Lewis said. “You can spend millions of dollars on technology and security, but training your people is probably the most important thing.”
As fraudsters' capabilities improve through automation, a wider range of demographics become vulnerable. “This is happening across all age groups,” Cutty says. “It's not just older people who are naive about technology. We've seen some very successful business people encounter suspicious activity. You can't let your guard down.”
You can do some basic things to protect yourself: be careful with emails and websites, don't click on unknown links, be wary of “too good to be true” scenarios, never share your passwords, and use multi-factor authentication on all your accounts.
Another important thing to understand is that the multi-step process banks use to process major transactions is meant to better protect their customers. Wire fraud remains rife, with consumers losing more than $10 billion to fraud in 2023, a 14% increase over 2022, according to data from the Federal Trade Commission.
“We do not accept phone calls from customers to make wire transfers,” says Lana Hollier, senior vice president and director of deposit operations at Sanibel Captiva. “We always initiate transfers to known numbers registered in our system, and any changes require a signature.”
If communication with the customer is unsuccessful, the bank may ask for more information.
“We have very close relationships with our customers, so if the conversation feels strange and they're not sure how to respond, we start asking more personal questions,” Quinn said. The bank also calls customers back at known numbers.
Customers need to be confident about who is on the other end of the phone.
“A lot of times we say, 'I don't want you to give me any information. Here's my name. Hang up, get the bank number and call me, and you'll know you're talking to me,'” Hollier said. “You'll be surprised at what you hear over the phone when you think you're talking to someone from your bank.”
As AI capabilities expand, banks and consumers will be able to work together to combat fraud.
“There's an ongoing conversation about what's going on, what the threats are, and what can be done to prevent those threats,” Cutty said.
