Fraudsters are attempting to intercept stimulus checks, set up bogus charities and defraud applicants for unemployment benefits. Mike Litt, consumer campaign director of U.S. Public Interest Research Group, discusses what can be done to stop them.

Mortgage lenders impose steep pricing adjustments for cash-out refinancing; bankers fear massive borrower fraud in the Paycheck Protection Program; some worry the coronavirus is giving banks an excuse to spy on employees; and more from this week's most-read stories.

Up to 12% of loans under the $660 billion small-business rescue program could be tied to misleading or completely phony applications, fueling concerns about lenders' potential liability.

Large spikes in transactions and unusual payment amounts can be a response to the pandemic, not a sign of fraud, says Genpact's Manish Chopra.

Artificial intelligence-driven monitoring is an important tool to fight crime but it is not a total solution, and as bad actors develop their own AI capabilities, the battle will continue, says Authoriti's Michael Cutlip.

Bots can complete tedious tasks, such as validating customer information against standard databases, more quickly and accurately than people and free up staff for other parts of the payment crime fight, says Genpact's Manish Chopra.

Whether presented at the teller line or through digital channels, the best way to prevent fraud is by triangulating items in real-time against a robust fraud database. To strengthen the database, fraud data needs to be contributed in return, says Advance Fraud Solutions' Ted Kirk.

PSD2 and FIDO are among the efforts that could ease adoption for consumer use, says Fingerprints' Jonas Andersson.

There is no denying that the upgrade to EMV will reduce certain types of fraud by noticeable amounts, but there should be no illusion that this is a “silver bullet” to a growing fraud trend, says The ai Corporation's James Crawshaw.

Discover transitioned all of its 8,000 U.S.-based call center personnel to work from home within a matter of days after the U.S. declared a national emergency on March 13. By March 20, Discover had 95% of its agents working from home using a thin-client device to emulate their call center desktops.