There’s one fraud pattern that’s highly predictable: When the economy goes down, fraud goes up. In the wake of COVID-19, the Great Recession of 2008 provides some important lessons that can help enterprise security teams protect their companies and employees against the increased risk of fraud.
Criminals Exploit Vulnerabilities
Let’s first take a look at some of the broad similarities between 2008 and 2020. As in 2008, consumer debt is today at an all-time high — in fact, it’s even greater than during the peak of the Great Recession. Unemployment has surged, with current rates higher than any time since the Great Depression of the 1930s.
The pandemic of 2020 has affected a wide range of American workers, especially those with customer-facing jobs that pay an hourly wage. People who have suddenly found themselves unemployed are most concerned about securing necessities such as food and shelter, and more are using credit cards to pay for rent and groceries.
These challenging economic conditions make many people, including employees, more vulnerable to being…
