By John C. Asbury
John C. Asbury is chair of ABA and CEO of Atlantic Union Bank in Richmond, Virginia.
That’s a sobering statistic.
Even more sobering is the fact that fraud has become an exceptionally lucrative enterprise — today, there are whole markets devoted to buying and selling consumer data and the tools needed to do things like clone bank websites or push out mass text messages to a group of bank customers that create a false sense of urgency.
The simple fact is, fraudsters are becoming more brazen by the day.
In fact, one of the more audacious examples we’ve seen at Atlantic Union Bank happened not long ago, when someone came into one of our branches posing as Maria Tedesco, our president and chief operating officer, with a fake ID and everything! Fortunately, the branch staff followed their training and figured out pretty quickly that something wasn’t right: This person came in late in the day, in a hurry, trying to cash a check — classic signs of a scam artist.
While this incident was stopped thanks to the vigilance of our team members, scenarios like this are way too common. Whether criminals are coming into branches in person, sending out phishing emails or employing other tactics, fraud has become a billion-dollar problem, with the Federal Trade Commission estimating fraud losses upwards of $12.5 billion in 2024 alone.
The banking industry has played a leading role in the fight against fraud, but the scope and scale of this challenge is far too large for one bank — or even one industry — to tackle alone. That’s why ABA has been vocal in recent months about calling for a whole-of-government approach to solving this pervasive problem.
America’s banks, in turn, are investing millions to develop advanced fraud detection capabilities to protect their customers, employing things like 24/7 fraud monitoring, fraud alerts and AI technology. We also continue to invest in things like data encryption and biometrics, multifactor authentication and consumer outreach — like ABA’s award-winning #BanksNeverAskThat and #PracticeSafeChecks campaigns — to prevent fraud from happening.
That’s why ABA has been vocal in recent months about calling for a whole-of-government approach to solving this pervasive problem. We’ve asked the White House to establish a national office to develop and coordinate a national scam and fraud prevention strategy, and pushed for new commitments by law enforcement to prosecute bad actors.
We’ve also urged the Trump administration and Congress to direct the Federal Communications Commission to establish a database of reported spam text messages, to help address the significant volume of fraud being perpetrated through consumers’ phones. And we’ve underscored the fact that telecom companies and large tech providers need to be active participants in the fraud fight as well.
These actions — along with increased engagement with state and local law enforcement by all stakeholders involved — can help us make meaningful progress in the fight against fraud.
I know that bankers like you are ready to do your part — and ABA is here to support you with resources like our ABA Fraud Contact Directory, which we recently opened up to credit union participants at the urging of ABA members.
Keeping our customers safe is our highest priority — and it will take all of us working together to win the fight against fraud.
