Consumers are increasingly transacting online, which is a
good thing. The only problem is the fact that fraudsters see a lot of
opportunity here and take advantage of it. Ecommerce retailers are being
targeted more due to the ease of account takeover and excessive amount of
stored credit card information on their sites. Were seeing a dramatic increase
in card-not-present fraud as cards using the Europay
MasterCard and Visa Standard are being widely deployed. With that being
said, merchants and banks are being told to prepare for an increase in fraud
due to the online environment that EMV is focusing on.
Account takeover happens when a username and password is
compromised from any given website. Once the credentials are acquired, the
criminal will load them onto an automated box and direct them to as many online
properties as possible to try to get into accounts. Did you know 55% of
consumers use the same set of credentials across all of their online sites?
That means once they get into an ecommerce site, where card data has been
stored on file, they can make purchases and resell the items. This is mostly
unfortunate for the merchant because they are the one dealing with the loss in
the end while consumers usually have some type of protection for fraudulent
transactions. Fraudsters are also starting to realize that B2B losses are
extremely profitable. The transactions are larger and can go unnoticed longer.
Although banks are investing in additional layers of security and
authentication methods, fraudsters are still working faster than institutions
can implement the secure layers.
Its been two years since the FFIEC
issued an updated authentication guide. This has been good because it has
forced institutions to implement more security and stronger authentication
processes. Making authentication and layered security
more effective needs to be a top priority. Taking the extra steps in front of
customers to prevent account takeovers could save you money and time. There is
also a higher need to protect mobile and online environments as fraudsters
become more savvy.
The truth is, most criminals are
fast, smart, well funded and have plenty of resources. Its hard protecting
your bank or ecommerce site in todays fraudulent environment. Consumers are
increasingly transacting and fraudsters know exactly where to focus. It may not
be possible to outthink the fraudsters but at least make your defenses stronger
than your competitors.
[Contributed by EVS Marketing]
