Fraud Risk Scheme:
Real-time payment fraud (or instant payments) exploits the irreversible speed of these transactions. The fraudster, after obtaining illegitimate access to the victim's account (through SIM Swapping, phishing, or coordinate theft), immediately issues one or more transfers. Unlike classic transfers which have a processing delay, real-time payments are credited to the beneficiary's account in a few seconds, making their cancellation extremely difficult, if not impossible. The fraudster thus ensures that the funds are instantly withdrawn by a mule before the bank has time to react.
Detection:
Fractional transfers just under alert thresholds: Monitoring amounts that are intentionally divided into several small transfers, each being just below the threshold that would trigger an automatic block or a manual verification.
Multiple operations in a few minutes: Detection of a rapid sequence of repeated transactions from the same account, or to different beneficiaries, within an extremely short period of time, typical of an automated attack.
Prevention:
Strict specific thresholds for real-time payments: Implementation of much lower daily or per-transaction amount limits for instant payments than for classic transfers, thus limiting the potential loss.
Cancellation delays with time-out: Offering, if technically possible, a brief delay (a few seconds) to the user to cancel the real-time payment, or imposing a latency period for the first transfer to a new beneficiary.
Share your feedback:
What tools, techniques, and processes are used in your organization to detect and prevent such fraud schemes?
