Fraudsters are too familiar with banking systems for their own good – and it will help you catch them.

Fraudulent accounts and credit cards are a huge problem for banks, with cyber criminals often opening multiple fake accounts using stolen identities. But in the process of doing so, fraudsters can trip themselves up by seeming too familiar with the sign-up process.

Or so says Israeli company Biocatch, which has launched a new product that uses behavioural biometrics to catch fraudsters opening new bank accounts, requesting credit cards or registering on e-commerce and other sites.

“They experience surprising familiarity with the account opening process, their fluency patterns are distinctive, they have all the required information at hand and never spend time researching it, they do not bother with completing optional elements,” the company said.

“The way they interact with specific fields can be very uncharacteristic when compared to the behaviour and cognitive choices done by real users.”

While behavioural biometrics is still in its nascent stages, investors are showing increasing interest in a concept that could provide a much needed boost to financial industry security. Biocatch raised $10 million last June, and Swedish company BehaviourSec landed €5 million in a funding round led by Octopus Investments and Northzone in December.

Russian security firm Kapersky said last month that more than 100 banks had been attacked by cyber criminals, who may have stolen up to $1 billion.

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