02.12.22

Hi, this is The Current Account, your daily dose of digital banking news without the fluff. Get ready for 9 hours of research. From 37 sources. In 3m 49s...(or 2m 49s if you're on drugs like SBF).

Let's dive in:

• World Cup: All the digital scams.
• Startup: Neo-banking for the unconnected.
• Round Up: All the latest headlines.

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Today's Big Ideas

Big Wins for Japan and Cyber-Scammers in World Cup!

In case you missed it, the World Cup’s on, and naturally, scammers are trying to ruin it.

Security researchers have identified 16,000 scam domains using FIFA World Cup 2022 branding, selling everything from fake tickets, kits, and phone cases (classic) to phony crypto tokens and NFTs (so 2022!)

World Cup fever provides the perfect cover for opportunistic cybercriminals who want to make a quick buck. But there are other dark forces at play. According to Tim Starks at the Washington Post, some of the piggybacking baddies have ideological and geopolitical motives.

Let’s face it. Nobody wanted a Qatar World Cup. At least, nobody in the West. The US reported growing concern over the use of cyber espionage and surveillance by the Qatari regime. And European regulators advised fans against downloading Qatar’s official World Cup app, Hayya, citing privacy risks.

Earlier this month, the security firm, Digital Shadows, highlighted the big scams to look out for.

• Impersonating Domains: Scammers are churning out webpages masquerading as legitimate, trusted organisations to steal personally identifiable information (PII). Watch out for qatar2022[.]pro, in particular. Its links go to the official Qatar 2022 World Cup website, but clicking on the Chat Box opens you up to malicious intent.
• Fake Apps: You'll find scores of dodgy apps in unofficial and official app stores. Some seem innocuous at first but soon switch to installing adware and sypware, stealing PII and financial data, extracting cookies and credentials.
• Fraudulent Social Media Pages: Facebook pages are exploiting the Qatar 2022 World Cup brand and logos to spread a smorgasbord of scams and pyramid schemes. Fake profiles for VIPs like FIFA president Gianni Infantino are being used to extract money from unsuspecting victims,
• Crypto and NFT Fraud: Phoney World Cup tokens and coins–promoted as limited edition cryptocurrencies–are doing the rounds. With Crypto.com an official World Cup sponsor and Ronaldo launching his own NFT project last month, it’s no surprise scammers are turning to Web3. Quick word of warning: If Alan Shearer tries to sell you a Gazza-Coin on Facebook–just say no.
• Hacktivists: 2022 has been the year of the hacktivist, fuelled mainly by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Their aim isn't stealing money, but drawing attention to their cause. With billions of eyeballs locked on the World Cup, there's ample opportunity for hacktivism. Crowdsourced distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks, website defacements, and data destruction operations are likely. 



Yuva Pay Stands Out Among 174 Startup Ideas

174 startups over 48 hours pitched their boldest new ideas in FIS’s first APAC fintech competition: InnovateIN48 (Partner Edition.) Among the nine winning ideas was Yuva Pay, a neobank for the unbanked and underserved populations of the world–no internet connection required.

While every other bank is focused on connected customers, Indian startup Yuva Pay targets half a billion Indians without smartphones or internet access. It’s a vast, largely rural market that will come online eventually. But probably not for decades. Yuva Pay can be the bridge to digital and financial inclusion. This is their wedge.

Yuva Pay’s Offline Mobile Payment Solution relies on SMS instead of 3G, 4G, or 5G. It compresses, encrypts, and pushes data packages through SMS to offline servers and then onto its banking partners. Yuva Pay can offer savings, credit, payments, and insurance by serving as a communication later.

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Snippets

🥐 Banque de France and Banque centrale du Luxembourg conduct wholesale CBDC test

😶 Identity fraud doubles in crypto and banking in 2022

💰 Teampay, the all-in-one-purchasing platform, today announced it raised $47 million in Series B funding led by existing investor Fin Venture Capital.  

💰 Credit card provider X1 nets $15m. They make "The smartest credit card ever made’ - built with 17g of stainless steel and laser etching technology.

🧾 The Bank of London (purpose-built global clearing, agency, and transaction bank) appoints Metro Bank's Marc Jenkins as UK CFO 

🧾 Amazon's Olatz Urroz joins payments fintech PagoNxt as CFO.

 🙏 Tweeq, a Saudi digital payments fintech, has received its e-money licence from the Saudi Central Bank (SAMA).