Account takeovers (ATOs) continue to plague digital businesses. ATO attacks increased by 90% in 2021 alone, according to Javelin Research. They have become so widespread that a Security.org report estimates that one in five households have been victimized, resulting in an average loss of $12,000 per ATO attack.

An ATO is a type of identity theft where a cybercriminal takes control of an account to send phishing messages, make unauthorized withdrawals, steal sensitive data, and a whole host of other nefarious actions.

Even a single ATO can harm a company’s reputation, leading to losses in revenue, and impacting customer trust and loyalty. Consumers overwhelming believe the brands they do business with bear the responsibility to protect their digital identities. This includes ATO prevention and detection.

The companies winning the fight against ATOs are preventing them by:

• limiting login attempts;
• enabling multifactor authentication;
• creating automated notifications of account changes;
• updating firewalls; and
• training staff on new trends and risky behavior.

In an ideal world, brands could prevent all ATOs from ever taking place. But even the best prevention strategies fail. Would-be fraudsters are using an ever-widening range of tactics and technologies get around common prevention approaches.

Just as fraudsters’ tactics have become more sophisticated, so have the detection techniques used by the most trusted digital businesses.

The latest in ATO detection is helping fight fraud by:

• Instantly detecting if a phone number has been SIM-swaped, ported, or call forwarded, proactively and dynamically verifying customer identity to prevent and detect fraud faster.
• Flagging suspicious behavior, such as multiple login attempts, password resets, changes to personal account details, and higher-than-normal value transctions.
• Accelerating or decelerating transactions at any point in a customers’ journey based upon their risk profile.

These approaches are invisible to the customer, limiting friction. This means companies can now prevent and detect ATOs in near real-time without over burdening the customer, ensuring a more pleasant experience and building trust in their platforms.

To learn more about reducing fraud and friction in consumer experiences, check out this Telesign webinar.