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Online EducationCompliance AllianceABA Banking Journal: ABA banker: Long-term Farm Bill would boost ag economyJuly 16, 2025
The agricultural provisions in the recently enacted budget reconciliation bill will provide a strong backstop for agricultural producers, but a long-term Farm Bill is still needed, Clint Hood, SVP for Synovus Bank in Dublin, Georgia, told House lawmakers today.
Hood, representing the American Bankers Association, testified before the House Agriculture Subcommittee on General Farm Commodities during a hearing on the importance of credit and risk management in financial farm operations. In his testimony, Hood noted that banks remain a primary source of credit to U.S. farmers and ranchers, but the agricultural economy is experiencing headwinds and economic assistance can provide some relief.
“Bankers continue to monitor the agricultural economy, and we are very cognizant of how economic headwinds affect our customers and our communities where we live and serve,” Hood said. “While both of these steps were needed and appreciated, Congress has several tools to help the farm economy – starting with the passage of a strong and durable Farm Bill.”
The reconciliation bill contains a partial version of the Access to Credit for our Rural Economy Act, as well as provisions from the Farm Bill, that will lower the cost of credit and make credit more widely available, he said. Still, the Farm Bill provides an opportunity to make needed changes to the credit title, including increased limits for the Farm Service Agency guaranteed loan programs, changes to the bona fide operator definitions, and modifications to Farmer Mac eligibility.
“Bankers commend the inclusion of increased reference prices and increased cost share for crop insurance programs, among the many other positive provisions” in the reconciliation bill, Hood said. “However, changes are still needed in the credit space to provide farmers and ranchers with the credit they need to work through the current downturn in the agricultural economy.” Back to TopABA Banking Journal: ABA urges FCC to impose call authentication requirement for non-IP networks, mandate IP transitionJuly 16, 2025
The American Bankers Association today joined six trade associations in urging the Federal Communications Commission to adopt a proposal to create a new call authentication requirement designed to limit criminal access to the U.S. calling network. Current FCC rules require voice service providers to implement the “STIR/SHAKEN” call authentication framework, which requires calls to be signed at origination and attested through the call pathway until the call reaches the recipient. STIR/SHAKEN works only over IP networks, and not over non-IP networks. The FCC’s proposal would require voice service providers that use a non-IP network – that is, a legacy time division multiplexing network – to implement a caller ID authentication framework for that non-IP network within two years. Since 2022, ABA has urged the FCC to require voice service providers to implement caller ID authentication solutions on non-IP networks. ABA also has called for a “whole-of-government” effort to combat the ever-increasing incidence of fraud. “Over the past two years, we have sounded the alarm regarding the increasing incidence of impersonation of legitimate companies, often accompanied by illegal “spoofing” of the number used in the caller ID,” the associations said. “[W]e urge the Commission to require Non-IP Providers to transition to IP by a date certain and to require voice service providers within one year to implement caller ID authentication solutions on non-IP networks.” ABA Banking Journal: ABA Fraudcast: How the ABA Foundation helps banks protect their customersAs more older Americans are major targets for criminals, Safe Banking for Seniors is an effective program to inform and defend against targeted scams.July 16, 2025
“We provide free, turnkey programs and materials to help bankers lead personal finance presentations with kids, young adults and seniors in their communities,” explains Sam Kunjukunju, ABA’s VP for consumer education, in this episode of the ABA Fraudcast. “Unfortunately the criminals are definitely targeting Americans of all ages, and it’s very challenging when we look at the older American population.” The ABA Fraudcast will be published every three weeks, on this site, in ABA Daily Newsbytes and wherever you listen to and subscribe to your favorite podcasts. Please subscribe! ABA offers resources to help banks prevent, identify, measure and report fraud, and to serve and protect consumers and their financial data. Back to TopCISA News: Hiring the Enemy: When Job Scams Target Companies and Consumers AlikeA new wave of employment fraud is targeting U.S. companies, with fake candidates using AI-enhanced resumes and stolen identities to infiltrate organizations. Socure uncovers how these sophisticated schemes, often linked to foreign operatives, pose significant security risks and highlights the urgent need for advanced identity verification in hiring processes..June 18, 2025 | Mike Cook, Head of Fraud Insights, Socure Over the past few months, Socure has found itself squarely in the crosshairs of a new wave of employment fraud — and we’re not alone. SOCURE VS. FAKE JOB APPLICANTSSocure’s own experience makes this problem very real. Our internal recruiters and hiring managers began noticing unsettling trends a few months ago in our applicant pool — particularly for senior engineering roles. What started as a trickle of too-perfect resumes quickly evolved into a deeper concern that aligns closely with warnings from federal law enforcement and investigative reporting. We discovered that several job applicants were entirely fabricated. They did not exist.
As you can see in the graph above, the Email and Phone RiskScores for "good" applicants were much less risky when compared to the fake applicant population. Specifically, "good" candidates had mature emails with an average of 1,646 days since the email was first seen in the Socure ecosystem versus 48 days for fake candidates. Additionally, correlation of phone ownership to name was much weaker for fake applications — .09 vs. .99 for "good" candidates (range of score is .00 to .99, with the lowest being the least likely that the phone is owned by the individual). These would not just be risky hires — they are potential national security threats. SPOTTING THE RED FLAGS EARLYPatterns of deception don’t start during the interview — they emerge in the application process, and are seen in online social networks. Common signals in these fraudulent profiles include:
But making decisions based off of an unusually great resume combined with a shallow LinkedIn profile isn’t exactly scientific and could result in blind spots and great candidates missed. SEEKING RISK INDICATORS BEHIND THE SURFACEEven the basic contact information on a resume — email, phone number and name — can reveal powerful signals. With passive verification using Socure’s Email, Phone and Address RiskScores and Correlation Values, you can analyze these identity elements with high precision, enabling organizations to detect anomalies and flag suspicious or synthetic identities early in the hiring process without causing user friction. SCRIPTED INTERVIEWS, SYNTHETIC RESPONSESEven with great passive verification tools running, there are telltale signs to look out for during the interview process — ones we documented live during actual interviews.
In one case, a Socure interviewer had tested a technical prompt in ChatGPT before the call. The candidate’s response matched it exactly. MEET "ANTHONY" — A REAL-WORLD EXAMPLETo illustrate how this type of fraud plays out in practice, consider a candidate we encountered — let’s call him “Anthony.” He had a polished resume, a LinkedIn profile, and all the surface markers of legitimacy. But as we examined his application more closely, several red flags began to emerge. To our surprise, he agreed.
On camera, Anthony came across as articulate, personable and well-prepared. He had clearly studied the technical details of the roles he claimed to have held. But his answers closely mirrored AI-generated responses — often sounding like something produced by ChatGPT — and he paused noticeably before replying to each question. At times, he shifted his eyes left to right during his responses, like he was reading a script. Despite having a surname with Italian or Catalan roots, his accent was clearly North Korean. But here’s the biggest giveaway — we ran a specific question — Have you worked with sensitive PII and how do you protect that data? — through ChatGPT before the interview. Below you can see the striking likeness in response:
WHY THIS THREAT IS DIFFERENTIdentity fraud in hiring used to be rare — and usually caught during background checks or I-9 verifications. But in a remote-first world, we rarely meet the person behind the resume. Today, AI allows bad actors to fake credentials, photos, documents, and even live interviews at scale. And legacy hiring systems weren’t built to catch this. I-9 verification confirms document format, not identity. E-Verify checks SSN, DOB and name validity, not ownership. Background checks assume the identity is real in the first place. WHAT EMPLOYERS SHOULD DOThis isn’t just about hiring the wrong person. It’s about risking exposure to hostile nation-state actors, data exfiltration and regulatory liability. If your company hires remotely — or grants employees access to sensitive systems or consumer data — here’s what we recommend: We know how important it is to not add friction to great candidates in the hiring process. Socure is in a very competitive employment market, and we want to make sure we hire the best candidates (who also happen to be real). It’s important that we don’t make the onboarding process difficult, especially in the initial reach out to new potentially great candidates. We believe the best process is to use “passive authentication” of job candidates early on. Passive authentication is a fraud detection process deployed by sophisticated financial services organizations for years. As mentioned earlier, we have seen that our RiskScores can do a great job of separating fake from real candidates using just the information found on every job applicant’s resume — their name, email and phone number. By analyzing this simple information quickly and behind the scenes, your recruitment team and hiring managers can cut the time they waste on fake applicants, and ensure only friction and ask for additional validation of only those candidates that are much more likely to be fake. Additional step-up authentication should include automated digital validation of a government document, like a passport or U.S. driver's license and a live selfie, which can help to identify any deepfakes or camera injection attacks. IDENTITY IS THE NEW PERIMETERIn cybersecurity, we used to say the firewall was the first line of defense. In hiring, identity now plays that role. Bad actors are using AI, stolen data and deepfakes to gain access to companies and exploit consumers. It’s time we adapt with the same level of sophistication. Identity must be verified as early as possible — quietly, passively and precisely. We can’t stop every fake applicant from applying. But with the right defenses, we can stop them from getting in. Back to Top |
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