How to identify an “orange” account and avoid financial fraud

Do you know how to identify an “orange account” and avoid financial fraud?

In Brazil, the number of “orange beads” has increased exponentially. According to a survey by Estadão, scams in the Brazilian financial system have reached the threshold of R$ 2.5 billion in losses in 2022.

These accounts are the primary vector for withdrawing stolen funds through scams, cell phone theft, social engineering, among other methods. One of the reasons for their growth is the difficulty of detecting them, as their profile is very similar to the owner of legitimate accounts or sometimes even legitimate users.

The “orange accounts” are created with the aim of evading the country’s financial system to transfer illicit funds. In this way it is necessary to understand that there are no equal accounts, cybercriminals often show different behavior patterns and, therefore, banks find it difficult to identify these accounts in advance.

Then, five categories or profiles of oranges based on similar attitudes were identified, namely: deceiver, seller, accomplice, naive and victim.

Every kind of ‘orange’

• • The Deceiver it is the same fraudster who opens accounts with the intention of committing fraud in the future and quickly diverts money from his accounts.
• • The seller he opens a real account to sell to the cyber offender.
• • The accomplice transfers funds to the scammer, aiming for a quick profit through a percentage of the transferred amount.
• • The last two profiles fit the involuntary group. That is, the naive believes he is doing legitimate business, while the victim has his identity stolen by intruders who take over his legitimate account to commit fraud.

How do they establish this type of account

The “orange accounts” are the most critical point in the recycling process infrastructure. After all, criminals can’t steal money if they have nowhere to send it. Therefore, we should know that there are two main ways they establish this type of account.

• • New account opening

Through stolen identities, new accounts are created and therefore cannot be traced. Since creation, they are inactivated for a time to avoid suspicion. Before long, the new accounts are being used to withdraw and launder stolen funds from other compromised accounts. Recently, they have started exploiting vulnerabilities in the account opening process using bot variants (robot scams).

• • Recruitment of oranges

They are usually oranges with the Accomplice or Seller profile. The digital landscape has made it easier for criminals to build entire networks for counterfeit money schemes, which has made the problem more acute in recent years.

How to take over an existing “orange” account

One of the most effective ways to detect existing “orange” accounts or the opening of new ones is through behavioral biometrics. With it, it will be possible to identify factors such as access behavior, typing speed, multiple users, among other elements.

Banks will be able to predict anomalies in the behavioral models of the “orange accounts” by analyzing the trend of the five risk behavioral profiles.

Additionally, there is other information to look out for that may help, such as: how familiar is the user with the account registration process, as a criminal repeatedly uses compromised identities and will demonstrate a high level of opening new account with respect to a legitimate user; the account owner’s familiarity with the data, as an attacker does not control all of the victim’s personal information and may rely on copy-and-paste techniques or automated tools to enter data that would be intuitive to the legitimate user.

Finally, it is important to evaluate whether the account owner has advanced computer skills compared to the general population, as users rarely have the ability to use advanced shortcuts, special keys or switch applications. And it’s also worth mentioning as a final reminder: helping scammers launder funds is illegal.

Cassiano Cavalcanti is director of BioCatch in Latin America.+

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Source: Terra

Camila

Camila Luna is a writer at Gossipify, where she covers the latest movies and television series. With a passion for all things entertainment, Camila brings her unique perspective to her writing and offers readers an inside look at the industry. Camila is a graduate from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) with a degree in English and is also a avid movie watcher.