By Ray Birch
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla.— Credit unions’ staff are dedicated to helping members fight fraud, but do they recognize the real people affected by criminals—the “human crime” behind every attack?
Financial crimes often mask a deeper, more sinister reality—human exploitation. The Knoble, a financial crimes nonprofit, coined the term “human crime” to highlight the victims behind fraudulent transactions, and Velera is partnering with the organization to help credit unions get even more involved in the fraud fight.
“Behind these scams and trafficking operations is a real person being victimized,” explained The Knoble Founder Ian Mitchell. “By leveraging the financial system, criminals fuel sex trafficking and other forms of human exploitation, making it crucial to recognize the human cost behind every illicit transaction.”
Comprising financial services professionals, law enforcement, regulators and non-governmental organizations, partners of The Knoble and its network work to find more effective ways to fight human crime, explained Nicole Reyes, VP of risk engagement at Velera.
“The Knoble’s mission is to harness the collective power of their partners and unite them in a shared commitment to combat human trafficking, child exploitation, financial scams, elder abuse and other forms of exploitation that leave individuals vulnerable and at risk of personal or financial harm,” Reyes said.
By employing a three-pronged approach, The Knoble works with financial services partners to:
- Increase awareness of these crimes
- Awaken others to the opportunity to access greater insight through financial clues and learn how to leverage these clues to fight human crime
- Collaborate across disciplines to innovate new solutions and processes that can be shared across the entire ecosystem
Hidden Clues
Professionals from more than 565 financial institutions have joined forces with The Knoble in an effort to uncover the “hidden clues” of these crimes that may lie within financial transaction processes, Reyes said.
“We've been doing a lot of sharing from a resource perspective,” Reyes said. “We will continue to partner in the market with The Knoble to get the message out about human crime. The fraud fighting industry is comprised of some of the most passionate minds focused on this mission. At Velera, we understand the world of financial crimes and how many consumers and institutions it can impact. As one of the nation's premier payments CUSOs and an integrated financial services technology provider, we serve more than 4,000 financial institutions throughout North America.”
Reyes pointed out that financial crimes and related scams are among the most significant issues Velera credit unions and their members face.
“One of the latest stats I read—3.2 billion phishing emails go out globally each day and upwards of 98% of cyber-attacks are carried out with social engineering scams, which have become even more sophisticated with the likes of AI and deep fake integration,” she said. “Velera is dedicated to doing everything within its power to not only prevent but combat and stop these crimes.”
Mitchell called financial services industry professionals highly skilled.
“They are amazing, looking at hundreds of thousands of millions of transactions daily,” he said. “And when we start recognizing there's a potential person being exploited behind that transaction, it changes the whole landscape. Our mission is to awaken, equip and mobilize the financial community to protect the most vulnerable from being exploited. We're all nascent in the financial sector—in protecting customers from these human crimes.”
The Knoble holds what it calls its Third Thursday Talks, an interactive web meeting during which presenters address various factors that impact human crime.
“Every third Thursday, we talk about scams,” Mitchell explained. “We have several hundred people across financial services—the largest banks and also the largest and smallest credit unions—all gathered and sharing practical tips on how to interact with a customer who's been victimized by a scam. They're learning together, and that's what this community is.
“It creates an environment where everybody can openly learn with each other, and then all hear about all of those resources that The Knoble and Velera have,” Mitchell continued.
Work As A Community
Mitchell pointed out there's almost 10,000 financial institutions in the U.S.
“All of us, small and large FIs, must be involved in this as a network, as a community,” he said. “Through our partnership with Velera, we’re going to reach more of those assets, hold more of those trainings…It’s about learning together, because there's so many great best practices we can share. With this partnership, we're going to reach more credit unions and reach more passionate credit unions. I see so many individuals being inspired in their jobs when they realize that what I do every day matters, because I am potentially saving a life or I'm potentially saving generational wealth from being stolen, and that's powerful.”
Mitchell said the work The Knoble and Velera are doing today is only the start.
“With the support from Velera and their technologies, we're really going to have a meaningful impact on protecting people,” he said. “We’re in the early stages. We're awakening, equipping…When we really get down to the maturity of this partnership, it's going to have very meaningful, tangible impacts on an actual transaction level. And that's where this is going.”