Several periods back when the WHO announced COVID-19 as a “pandemic” it gave the outcomes of the outbreak. Therefore, thousands of individuals are undergoing the novel outbreak and thousands have lost their lives due to the COVID-19 pandemic. With the nations being under strict lockdown, individuals are restricted to their houses. This has built an unknown fear and concern among people regarding this novel outbreak.
One of the chief obstacles linked with this novel outbreak is how financial crimes and fraudsters are misusing it. It’s a well-comprehended phenomenon that the fear and consideration that come with such pandemics and natural disasters open new gateways for suspicious people to take advantage of the circumstances and fulfill their fraudulent activity.
Fraudsters Schemes to misuse COVID-19
The regulatory authorities and crime systems are consistently distributing reports and information about possible COVID-19 threats. Presently, the federal bureau investigation has issued a statement underlining the potential threat scheme that fraudsters might use to exploit people during the coronavirus pandemic. The fraudster scheme sounds solid and quite good-looking and fraudsters can easily take innocents into faith, associated with dating frauds where the innocents searching for affection accidentally become con artists.
But no one understands the origin of the cash they are giving; it can be from internet frauds or other unfortunate sources such as illegitimate company schemes, malicious activity, terrorism financing, or drug trafficking.
Money laundering and Financial Crime incidents are anticipated to increasing
As the COVID-19 pandemic continues the nations into its hold, EU regulatory authorities are declaring more strict guidelines for the monetary institutions to stay observant and strictly monitor the payments regarding financial crimes. Therefore, the EBA issued a declaration last month urging monetary institutions and the banking sector about the emerging evidence of the current pandemic of fraudulent activities during the COVID-19 outbreak.
Due to this, the COVID-19 pandemic has assisted financial criminals in finding new methods of transferring illegitimate funds across borders without getting disclosed, con artists being the ones as underlined by the Federal Bureau investigation. That is why it is very essential to know your customer(KYC).
Reducing financial crime through touchless technology:
While there is no remedy for the coronavirus pandemic presently and we can’t state how prolonged it’s going to remain like this, fraudsters are not going to finish here. Therefore, in the upcoming months, the warning will eventually increase. The standard measures are outdated due to the rise of the latest touchless technology. Companies such as monetary institutions, the banking sector, and e-commerce websites, can reduce financial crime by including advanced artificial intelligence solutions.
Contactless Know Your Customer Verification
KYC procedures are compulsory for businesses authorizing with cash to reduce money laundering and financing terrorists. Due to the lockdown since the COVID-19 outbreak, the companies have adopted remote work that makes it hard to authenticate users using standard know-your-customer methods. Then what difference can they make? The solution is easy, adapt Know Your Customer ( KYC) measures that operate on the principle of AI.
Continuous anti-money laundering checks
Professionals are estimating that unquestionably the circumstance is going to remain the same, raising the threat of financial crime. This is why companies need to step up their protection game to fight fraudsters during COVID-19. This can only be performed by implementing continuous anti-money laundering checks that can closely examine the users. Therefore, with KYT companies can authenticate and monitor the payments done by the users.
Know Your Business (KYB)
Many situations are happening in which fraudsters are cloning the companies or playing to be genuine retailer companies to deceive individuals. Under such circumstances, quick KYB solutions are an efficient method to verify the authenticity of the company before performing purchases or undergoing an agreement with the company. Know your business checks involve the authentication of business registration, company license, recognition of a company, and other executives of the company.
It all boils down to
The coronavirus pandemic has become a threat to several companies. Criminals have generated the latest ways of financial crimes which are a rising issue for monetary institutions. Therefore, financial crimes like malicious activities, financing terrorism, and other scams have significantly grown. Monitoring payments with the KYT solution and authenticating users with know-your-customer verification are two of the main efficient ways of authorizing financial crimes. Therefore, continuous anti-money laundering checks ensure your company is free from malicious activities.