|
Avoiding Credit Card Fraud
Q: It seems that
credit card fraud is on the rise. What can I do to accommodate my customers,
yet protect my business from criminals?
A: You're not
alone in your concern about credit card fraud. A recent survey conducted by
the Merchant Fraud Squad, an online crime prevention and education group,
found that 47 percent of small and midsized Internet merchants believe fraud
is one of the most significant problems their businesses face. (Read
more...)
Stop Credit Card Fraud
Q: Is it safe to
accept credit cards over the Internet?
A: The answer to
your question requires a discussion of identity theft, as it's the
fastest-growing financial crime in the United States, according to federal
law enforcement officials. CNN reports that
the Social Security Administration alone
received 30,000 complaints in 1999, up from 11,000 in the previous year. And
the federal government estimates that as many as 500,000 people are targeted
each year—a threat of such great proportions that the
Federal Trade Commission has launched a
special Web site to educate
the public and inform victims how to respond to identity theft. (Read
more...)
Don't take all
the credit: - credit card fraud is a growing crime. Here are tips on how to
protect your business.
Last September, Ala Moana Shopping Center personnel stopped two
California tourists as they tried to buy luxury watches with stolen credit
cards. One of the men had purchased a $13,000 watch from the same store the
day before and had accidentally signed a name different than the embossed
name on the credit card. Store personnel recognized the man and called the
Honolulu Police Department, which led to an arrest. (Read
more...)
A constant theme of most online
anti-fraud prevention tips is to use your credit card for
online purchases and memberships. The underlying reason for
this advice is that you can always complain to the credit
card issuer about unauthorized charges and only be subject
to the first $50 of any such unauthorized charges.
There is no doubt that the use of your
credit card is much preferable to the use of money orders
and cheques for the payment of online merchandise. Payments
that are made money order or cheques, can't be canceled in
time in the event your merchandise is not delivered.
A common scam of sellers at online
auctions is to require only money orders or cheques for
payment of goods. Once you determine that the goods are not
going to be delivered and that you have been scammed, the
scam seller is long gone. (Read
more...)
‘Card skimming’ is the illegal copying
of information from the magnetic strip of a credit or ATM
card. It is a more direct version of a phishing scam.
The scammers try to steal your details
so they can access your accounts. Once scammers have skimmed
your card, they can create a fake or ‘cloned’ card with your
details on it. The scammer is then able to run up charges on
your account.
Card skimming is also a way for scammers
to steal your identity (your personal details) and use it to
commit identity fraud. By stealing your personal details and
account numbers the scammer may be able to borrow money or
take out loans in your name.
Warning signs
-
A shop assistant takes your card out
of your sight in order to process your transaction.
-
You are asked to swipe your card
through more than one machine.
-
You see a shop assistant swipe the
card through a different machine to the one you used.
-
You notice something suspicious about
the card slot on an ATM (e.g. an attached device).
-
You notice unusual or unauthorised
transactions on your account or credit card statement.
(Read
more..)
With the festive season fast
approaching, it is easy to let your guard down when swiping
your bank card for purchases.
But with incidents of card fraud in this country increasing
by more than half compared to last year, the South African
Banking Risk Information Centre (Sabric) has warned that you
should not let your card "out of your sight". (Read
more...)
Preventing Credit Card Fraud on Your Website
January 2007: Despite
e-payment options, credit cards remain the Internet’s
primary currency. Here are some basic steps to keep your
e-commerce site safe from credit fraud. (Read
more...)
Fraudsters use charities to test credit cards
JULY 2007: According to
Symantec,. the criminals are starting to use charitable
donations as a way to check whether their stolen credit card
numbers are working. (Read
more...)
Fraud
Management in the Credit Card Industry
APRIL 2002: On November 16,
2001, the Payment Cards Center of the Federal Reserve Bank
of Philadelphia sponsored a workshop on fraud management in
the credit card industry. Daniel Buttafogo and Larry Drexler
of Juniper Bank led the discussion.2 Daniel Buttafogo,
Director–Risk Management, is Juniper’s fraud expert. He
provided an overview of fraud in the card industry and
discussed some of the challenges he faces as a risk manager.
Larry Drexler is General Counsel and the Chief Privacy
Officer at Juniper. Following Buttafogo’s remarks, he led a
more general discussion on how fraud protection and security
can be placed in the context of the broader public policy
debate on information privacy. This paper summarizes these
two executives' presentations and is supplemented by
additional research. (Read
more...)
Preventing Payment Card Fraud: Dos and Don’ts
Provides consumers with
information on how to protect payment cards from loss or
theft; also outlines what to do if a payment card is used
for fraudulent purchases. (Read
more...)
Managing Online Fraud – A Merchant’s Guide to Best Practice
The term “payment card fraud”
occurs almost daily in the media today. The average reader
is flooded with breaking news about new scams invented by
increasingly cunning fraudsters. The general consensus is
that it is getting more and more unsafe to use your payment
card for shopping. This White paper deals with payment card
fraud on the Internet, also referred to as Card Not Present
fraud (CNP). It is called Card Not Present to distinguish it
from a brick and mortar business where customers are
required to have their payment cards present when paying.
This is of course not possible when shopping online. (Read
more...)
Fraud Prevention - What Every Merchant Should Know about
Internet Fraud
e-Commerce is booming and has
become an essential sales channel for businesses both
domestically and internationally. The profitability and
reach of an online business is hard to beat in the offline
world. And offline businesses that don’t have an online
presence are at a serious competitive disadvantage.
Unfortunately, e-commerce has also become an attractive
revenue source for criminals who perpetrate Internet fraud.
As an Internet merchant, you need to be aware and informed
so that you can take steps to protect your business. Online
payments security and fraud prevention is everyone’s
responsibility. (Read
more...)
MARCH 2005: Batman once said,
"If only they would use their genius for good instead of
evil!" While Internet fraudsters will never stop finding new
ways to use cyberspace to victimize, fraud examiners now
have methods to prevent their crimes rather than just trying
to investigate after the fact.
A Nigerian Criminal Enterprise
(NCE) has been using computers in Lagos, Nigeria, to
perpetrate a version of the forwarder scam - placing
thousands of Internet orders using randomly generated credit
card numbers and expiration dates on the Web sites of
hundreds of U.S. businesses.
Members of this NCE recruit
U.S. citizens to receive merchandise and forward the goods
back to Nigeria where they sell them on the black market. (Read
more...)
|
