Incognia Nets $15.5M for Fraud-Fighting Efforts | #phishing | #scams | #hacking | #aihp

Mobile identity platform Incognia on Thursday (June 2) finalized a $15.5 million Series A fundraising round that it plans to use for continued growth of its identity fraud-fighting work, with more than 200 million mobile users in more than 20 countries among its customer base.

Point72 Ventures led Incognia’s latest funding effort, according to a company press release. The company focuses on user authentication and fraud prevention on mobile applications in FinTech, cryptocurrency, gaming, delivery and social media, the release said.

Incognia said identity fraud losses hit $52 billion and affected 45 million U.S. adults in 2021, citing information from Javelin Strategy and Research, with new account fraud increasing 109% and account takeover losses increasing 90%. Social engineering is now responsible for more than 80% of the fraud losses in the U.S.

Incognia said it uses anonymized location behavior to create a frictionless user experience with maximum security.

“Today’s authentication and fraud detection solutions aren’t working for the user, or for businesses, and the market is looking for more innovative technologies,” said André Ferraz, founder and CEO of Incognia. “We’re emerging as the global location identity leader, effectively combating the increasing fraud on mobile around the world.

“We’re dedicated to enabling our customers to deliver frictionless mobile experiences without compromising security and privacy.”

PYMNTS recently found that banks and businesses contend with a huge array of fraud threats, with various forms of identity fraud comprising some of the most widespread techniques.

Related: PYMNTS Intelligence: Leveraging Behavioral Analytics To Counter Identity Fraud

A recent study found that stolen identities were the top fraud threat faced by financial institutions (FIs) over the past year at 55%, with synthetic identities taking second place at 44%. While the former method involves fraudsters stealing the identities of real people, the latter sees bad actors constructing new identities out of whole cloth.

Synthetic identity fraud has no theft victims to notify organizations of fraudulent applications or purchases made in their names, leaving companies reliant on their own security systems to catch it. This type of fraud costs organizations up to $20 billion per year, and traditional identity verification solutions miss up to 95% of synthetic identity fraud instances.