LL Global’s FraudShare Stops 55 Account Takeover Attempts In First Year

One year after it started the FraudShare system to unite the insurance industry to fight cyber fraud, LL Global will soon have coverage representing 75% of the life insurance market.

Since its launch, 42 companies have adopted FraudShare as part of their fraud prevention program, LL Global said in a news release. FraudShare will soon cover companies representing 75% of the in-force U.S. life insurance market, 70% of deferred annuity assets and 30% of the U.S. defined contribution plans market.

“Companies are actually able to identify most scenarios, most attacks, and a number of companies have been able to use the FraudShare system and data to detect those attacks and, in a number of cases, to stop money from going out the door,” said Russ Anderson, head of LL Global’s Financial Crimes Services.

LL Global is the parent company of LIMRA, LOMA, and Secure Retirement Institute.

To date, FraudShare has helped participating companies detect and/or prevent 55 account takeover incidents, LL Global reported. FraudShare data suggest that on average, a company reports between three to five account takeover attacks per month and the average fraudulent disbursement requested is $71,000 from an average account value of $251,000.

The COVID-19 pandemic spurred a shift away from account takeover to attempts to pilfer from government distribution of grants and unemployment checks, Anderson told InsuranceNewsNet.

“The fraudsters also pivoted as they realize more and more people were going to be at home and isolated, and our members are reporting a dramatic increase in elder abuse and elder exploitation and romance-type scams,” he added. “That's good for us to know as using the FraudShare data we can see that the trend has gone away from account takeover.”

In addition to helping prevent account takeover fraud, FraudShare also provides companies access to industry-specific statistics and trends about fraud in the insurance and retirement industries. This allows companies to benchmark their fraud activity against that of their peers.

LL Global is planning to expand FraudShare to the Canadian market and exploring opportunities to make FraudShare available to help property and casualty insurance companies combat ATO fraud. In addition, LL Global is planning to launch FraudForum, a platform that will allow companies to interact with each other regarding a wide variety of fraud topics beyond account takeover including incidents, training, controls and other best practices.

“A key part of our five-year strategy, Compass 2025, is to work with our members to develop shared solutions that address common industry challenges,” Anderson said.

InsuranceNewsNet Senior Editor John Hilton has covered business and other beats in more than 20 years of daily journalism. John may be reached at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @INNJohnH.

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InsuranceNewsNet Senior Editor John Hilton has covered business and other beats in more than 20 years of daily journalism. John may be reached at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @INNJohnH.