The number of fraudsters trying to access individuals' financial accounts is growing, but so are the efforts to block them, according to LIMRA.

Although based on a small number of cases, the increases in the number of fraud attempts and the increase in the amounts of money involved are significant, according to LIMRA, a global research, consulting and professional development organization based in Windsor, Conn.

Financial advisors often are targeted because fraudsters are attempting to gain access to the advisors’ client accounts, LIMRA said.

LIMRA has seen an increase in the number of people trying to impersonate advisors in an attempt to access the advisors’ books of business to access. “While the overall number of advisor impersonations were low, they increased significantly from 1.7% of incidents in 2020 to 3.3% of incidents in 2021,” LIMRA said.

“This is troubling because if a fraudster successfully impersonates an advisor, he or she can easily access dozens, if not hundreds, of customer accounts,” Russ Anderson, head of financial crimes services for LIMRA, said in a statement.

As security measures for financial accounts improve, those intent on taking over someone else’s account continue to increase and evolve their strategies, LIMRA said.

“Among our members we’ve seen both the number of account takeover attempts and the account values targeted going up each year,” Anderson said.

The average number of monthly incidents experienced by LIMRA members increased 20% from five to six per month last year and the amount of money targeted increased significantly from 2020 to 2021, from $216,000 in 2020 to $280,000 in 2021, a 30% increase, LIMRA said.

The growth in the number of fraud attempts is partially due to the growing volume of online transactions that involve money, which increased by 52% from 2020 to 2021. “As companies focus on enabling greater online and mobile transaction capabilities, fraudsters are also changing their focus of attack,” LIMRA said.

“Companies need to be vigilant when it comes to preventing fraud,” Anderson said. “One of the first lines of defense is educating advisors and company employees.” Employees at companies that use online payment systems are often quicker to detect incidents of fraud than can be discovered using other methods, the research firm said.

Although fraud attempts have risen, “fortunately, the number of fraudsters who were actually successful in accessing accounts via a customer portal was down 16%,” Anderson said. “This is a great indication that recent actions to shore up online defenses are working.”