Steve Beckerman, Chief Operating Officer, ERAD Group contributed to an article in Police Chief Magazine.
View the full article here.
Financial crimes of fraud are rampant in the United States. Unfortunately, when talking about “financial crimes” in 2021, this no longer refers to just prepaid, debit, or credit card fraud.
Cash seizures are down because criminals are now moving proceeds with digital currency—not just prepaid cards—which makes these activities harder to capture. These new ways of moving money now encompass various cash applications, card skimming, and even human trafficking. Identifying and investigating financial crimes, seizing laundered funds, and documenting details for prosecution are important issues that law enforcement struggles to deal with.
Understanding the difference between prepaid cards and debit cards is important, particularly when it comes to identifying and seizing the associated digital cash. Unlike a debit card, a prepaid card is not linked to an individual bank account. Instead, money is loaded onto the card in advance, and it can be spent at almost any location in the world. The ease of use with these types of cards allows criminals to move and launder money easily while making detection more difficult for law enforcement and financial institutions.
The problem for financial institutions and card issuers is timing. The longer it takes to identify a compromised account, the more exposed it is to fraud losses. Most issuers use artificial intelligence and neural networks to identify fraudulent activity, but unfortunately that happens after the card has already been exploited, leaving the issuer exposed. Being able to notify issuers immediately after a card has been confiscated helps reduce the losses and improves customer satisfaction. The problem is that most law enforcement agencies do not have adequate tools to identify and report the compromised accounts.