Assistant Attorney General Alice S. Fisher of the Criminal Division and U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York Benton J. Campbell have announced that 'three defendants have been charged in a federal grand jury indictment and complaint with illegally accessing the computer systems of a national restaurant chain and stealing credit and debit card numbers from that system.'   » Continue Reading

Jessie Mangaliman and Mark Gomez write for the San Jose Mercury News about recent incidents of debit card skimming in Silicon Valley resulting in counterfeit cards being used to attack ATMs and get cash. "It's unclear how, but police said the thieves may have swapped a debit-card-reading machine at one or more of the store's checkout stands, or installed small, easily hidden skimming devices that collect a shopper's card number and personal identification codes"

In an article titled 'Crooks Have Your Card and You Don't Even Know It', Elisabeth Leamy reports for ABC News on credit and debit card cloning. She writes: "It's a bonanza for crooks. They used to have to risk going into stores to buy pricey merchandise, which they then sold for cash. Now they can just drain ATMs. Authorities say specialized crews do nothing but hit ATMs, cashing out on behalf of other identity thieves and taking a commission."

iovation has announced that mobile payments provider Obopay is implementing iovation ReputationManager, iovation’s device-based fraud management service, 'to reduce the risk of online payment fraud by enhancing its ability to proactively identify devices that have been associated with fraudulent activity.'   » Continue Reading

The FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) has published the 2007 Internet Crime Report . For the year, IC3 received 206,884 complaints of crimes perpetrated over the Internet during 2007. Of the complaints received, more than 90,000 were referred to law enforcement around the nation, amounting to nearly $240 million in reported losses. This represents a $40 million increase in reported losses from complaints referred to law enforcement in 2006.   » Continue Reading

Vindicia, has announced that it has added a fraud screening module to its integrated billing and fraud management offerings, Vindicia CashBox and Vindicia ChargeGuard, that 'enables online merchants to adopt sophisticated commerce models to build revenue, and optimize their false positive and customer acquisition rates while continuing to prudently manage occurrences of true fraud.'   » Continue Reading

The Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago will host its eighth payments conference entitled “Payments Fraud: Perception versus Reality” on June 5-6, 2008 at the Chicago Fed. The conference, which will highlight threats to the security of the payments system and explore solutions to those challenges, will cover such topics as:

• Identifying security issues in the retail payments system
• Preventing and containing payments fraud
• Allocating losses when payments fraud occurs
• Exploring fraud in emerging payment channels
• Evaluating public and private responses to payments fraud

The planned conference agenda is available online. Early registration ends March 28. Registration details here.

Quova has announced a partnership with Guardian Analytics to help protect online financial accounts from fraud and identity theft. "Under the partnership, Guardian Analytics has integrated Quova’s IP geolocation data into its FraudMAP solution. Providing online channel risk management, FraudMAP delivers fraud detection, forensics and ongoing risk monitoring based on strong analytics and predictive models of individual behavior. The unique solution was built from the ground up to automatically detect new online fraud threats in real time without requiring rules development or algorithm training."   » Continue Reading

Hannaford Bros. Co., a Scarborough, Maine, supermarket chain with 165 stores has announced "containment of a data intrusion into its computer network that resulted in the theft of customer credit and debit card numbers. No personal information, such as names or addresses, was accessed or obtained." The AP reports that "about 4.2 million unique card numbers were exposed."   » Continue Reading

In an article titled 'Soaring rates of debit fraud prompt switch to smart cards' in today's Globe and Mail, Timothy Appleby writes about fraud on Interac debit cards and the planned migration to chip cards in Canada.

In the UK, APACS has reported 2007 statistics for both card fraud losses and online banking fraud losses. Card fraud losses were up by 25% with the increase being driven by a £90.5 million increased in fraud abroad as more UK card details were stolen for use in countries yet to upgrade to chip and PIN. Online banking fraud losses went down 33% to £22.6 million.   » Continue Reading

APACS, the UK payments association, has announced the creation of the Payment Industry and Police Joint Intelligence Unit (PIPJIU) as an integral part of its Dedicated Cheque and Plastic Crime Unit (DCPCU). According to APACS, "this enhanced intelligence unit is the result of the amalgamation of the banking industry’s Fraud Intelligence Bureau (FIB) – the body that formerly distributed information between the banking industry and law enforcement throughout the UK – and the intelligence section of the DCPCU."   » Continue Reading

Secure Identity Systems has announced it is bringing a new Israeli technology named mConfirm to the U.S. that it says "thwarts credit and debit card fraud, and potentially stops ID thieves in the act. This in turn helps banks better protect customers, stem losses due to fraud, and attract new depositors with free identity protection services."   » Continue Reading

The Merchant Risk Council (MRC) has announced the results of its annual merchant fraud survey. "The survey was sponsored by CyberSource Corporation as part of its broader annual survey of online fraud benchmarks. The combined results show MRC Platinum Merchants are consistently outperforming other online merchants in controlling fraud and protecting valid customer orders."   » Continue Reading

The Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago has announced it will host its eighth payments conference, Payments Fraud: Perception versus Reality, June 5–6, 2008 at the Chicago Fed. The conference will highlight threats to the security of the payments system and explore solutions to those challenges.

Accertify has announced that Southwest Airlines has selected its Interceptas solution to fight credit card fraud.   » Continue Reading

Accertify and Experian have announced a strategic partnership to help e-commerce sites process orders quickly while reducing charge-backs and the total cost of fraud. Accertify will offer Experian's Credit Card Verification, an credit card authentication tool, to Accertify's customers. Credit Card Verification provides "robust consumer authentication and confirms the presence of a specific credit card account on a consumer's credit report."   » Continue Reading

In the UK, there's a special police unit called the Dedicated Cheque and Plastic Crime Unit that's responsible for cheque and card fraud. APACS reports that the DCPCU was responsible for £107 million in estimated fraud savings in 2007 compared with savings of £130 million achieved in the five years following the Unit’s launch in 2002.   » Continue Reading

Accertify and iovation have announced a partnership to help online merchants fight credit card fraud. Accertify will offer iovation's ReputationManager, a real-time device-based fraud management service, as a part of its Interceptas solution. Accertify says that "Interceptas is the first integrated platform designed from the merchant’s perspective for combating card-not-present fraud, enabling the complete fraud prevention process to be managed with one comprehensive and highly flexible solution."   » Continue Reading

PayPal has announced an agreement to acquire Fraud Sciences Ltd., a privately-held Israeli company with expertise in online risk tools, in a cash transaction with an aggregate transaction value of approximately $169 million. According to PayPal, "Fraud Sciences’ risk tools and analytics are expected to enhance eBay and PayPal’s proprietary fraud management systems and accelerate the development of next generation fraud detection tools."   » Continue Reading

BasePoint Analytics has announced the launch of its Recovery Optimization Program for credit and debit card issuers that provides them with "proven methods and techniques to increase the amount they recover on fraudulent transactions." BasePoint says the program can "increase issuer recovery rates to as much as 50% of the initial claims of fraud, whereas current industry average recovery rates are only up to 30%."   » Continue Reading

In an article titled 'Has chip-and-pin failed to foil fraudsters?', Danny Bradbury writes for The Guardian about the UK's experience with Chip and PIN equipped payment cards. In addition to the technology change, the UK also changed how consumers report fraud. Bradbury notes that 'legal changes last April forced customers to report card fraud to banks, and not the police.'

Guardian Analytics has announced the release of FraudMAP, a fraud prevention solution for protecting online accounts from fraud and identity theft. According to the company, "FraudMAP delivers fraud detection, forensics and ongoing risk monitoring based on strong analytics and rich, predictive models of individual behavior. The unique solution was built from the ground up to automatically detect new online fraud threats without requiring fraud rules development or algorithm training."   » Continue Reading

CyberSource has release the results of its ninth annual CyberSource Corporation survey of eCommerce fraud - concluding that" U.S. merchants are succeeding in holding the fraud rate stable, but they are expending considerably more resources in the effort. Merchants estimate that 1.4% of their online sales will line the pockets of fraudsters this year-identical to last year-but much higher volumes spent in U.S. eCommerce means the dollar losses are approximately 20% higher The result: criminals will unlawfully carry off $3.6 billion in goods and services this year-up from $3.1 billion in 2006."   » Continue Reading

Ross Kerber writes for the Boston Globe about PIN debit vs. signature debit - noting that banks prefer debit card transactions to be signature debit because of the higher income they receive on those transactions. He then contrasts that with higher fraud on signature debit transactions and cites how some industry analysts are suggesting that banks are more focused on the higher fees than they are on minimizing fraud losses.

Intel Capital has announced a $10 million investment in iovation, a Portland, Oregon-based company that provides online security and fraud protection services. The company says it provides "the first device reputation service aimed at protecting business on the Internet. The real-time service prevents online fraud including charge-backs, identity theft, phishing, click fraud and other abuses of online services."   » Continue Reading

In an article titled 'The Borrower Who Never Was', Christopher Conkey writes for the Wall St. Journal about synthetic identity fraud - where made up identities are used to perpetrate financial fraud. "This kind of fraud doesn't usually directly affect consumers. The big losers are banks, which get stuck with loan defaults and unpaid credit-card bills that identity thieves leave behind."

CyberSource has announced that Jet Airways is the first airline in India to implement an automated online risk management solution. CyberSource is providing its Decision Manager solution to Jet Airways to help streamline online risk management processes and reduce fraud.   » Continue Reading

FraudSciences Corp., a provider of "guaranteed online credit card-not-present fraud detection and protection", has announced it has closed its Series B round of venture funding totaling $11 million from Redpoint Ventures and BRM Capital.   » Continue Reading

An article by Alan O'Sullivan on the UK's This Is Money web site expresses consumer frustration's with the lack of complete security against fraudulent use of cards in the Chip and PIN system. He writes "large numbers of cash withdrawals are being made using cards without a security chip and it is the banks themselves that are allowing it to happen."

Guardian Analytics, a fraud prevention solution provider for protecting online channels, has announced the completion of $4.5 million in Series B financing from Foundation Capital of Menlo Park, Calif. "The company will use the Series B funding to launch the company and its fraud prevention solution into the market and quickly expand product development, marketing and sales efforts."   » Continue Reading

APACS reported today that total card fraud losses on UK issued cards "increased by 26 per cent in the six months to June 2007 compared with the first half of 2006. This increase has been driven by a 126 per cent rise in fraud on UK-issued cards being used overseas. In contrast, domestic card fraud continues to fall thanks to chip and PIN, with losses at UK retailers down 11 per cent (see notes to editors and losses at UK cash machines down 57 per cent."   » Continue Reading

Following the closing of the KKR acquisition yesterday, First Data Corp. has updated some of the information on its web site. Included in the bio for newly appointed Chief Strategy Officer Tom Bell is a description of his responsibilities for FDC's "Centers of Excellence" - described as 1) mobile payments, 2) loyalty, 3) data analytics and 4) fraud and security.

Wendy M Grossman writes for the Guardian (UK) about how some smart fraudsters exploit the hole left by the disappearance earlier this year of the National High-Tech Crime Unit in the UK. According to Grossman, "the unit's disappearance means that crimes committed online might not be investigated by the local police for the victim - which in turn would mean that central statistics would not show the extent of e-crime, and the need for the reinstatement of the unit."

Fair Isaac has announced that it will team up with NYCE Payments Network to "deliver innovative device-profiling technology to the debit card industry, providing NYCE Network participants with one of the best fraud detection and prevention offerings in its class."   » Continue Reading

Greg Bluestein writes for the Associated Press about new interest among fine dining restaurants in small point-of-sale terminals that can be brought to the table - enabling diners to complete their payment, add on a tip, and be done without handing their payment to a waiter. Restaurants are rapidly becoming the last places that consumers allow their cards to leave their sight - and have proven to be the greatest sources of mag stripe skimming.

Byron Acohido and Jon Swartz write for USA Today about magnetic stripe skimming and counterfeiting of credit cards using the plastic from open loop gift cards.

China UnionPay Data (CUP Data) and Arcot Systems have announced a partnership that the two companies say will help minimize Internet transaction fraud. Under the licensing and development agreement, CUP Data will use Arcot’s TransFort family of solutions in the joint development of a common risk management outsourcing service for marketing to card issuers in China.   » Continue Reading

QSecure, a Los Altos, CA-based startup, has announced new technology that it says "will help the financial services industry reduce fraud resulting from stolen card data. The company’s patented SmartStripe technology protects against counterfeit fraud without requiring changes in retail systems or card holder behavior."   » Continue Reading

The PULSE EFT Association has launched its annual nationwide effort encouraging consumers to review and practice safety tips when using their ATM/debit cards. New to the network’s ATM/Debit Card Safety Awareness Month campaign this June is an increased focus on privacy and fraud protection.   » Continue Reading

In an article titled 'Retailers Look to Put a Halt To Rising Chargeback Losses", Cards&Payments takes a look at the issue of "friendly fraud". Glenbrook's Allen Weinberg comments: "It's a big unspoken problem," says Allen Weinberg, managing partner of Glenbrook Partners, a Menlo Park, Calif.-based payments-consulting firm. "No one wants to talk about it because it shows the system is being abused, and the merchants get left holding the bag."

Scott Berinato writes an article for CIO titled "How Online Criminals Make Themselves Tough to Find, Near Impossible to Nab". According to Berinato, "computer crime has shifted from a game of disruption to one of access. The hacker’s focus has shifted too, from developing destructive payloads to circumventing detection."

Arcot is holding a seminar in New York on Wednesday, June 6, titled "Taking the eFraud Out of eBanking - Preventing Identity Fraud in Financial Services".

Telsecure Group has announced securePay, calling it "a new transaction security system to foil internet, mail and telephone card fraud." Telsecure says it is partnering with Sybase365 and Ingenico.   » Continue Reading

The Anti-Phishing Working Group (APWG) has announced that the financial services industry, Internet security companies and law enforcement have joined forces to co-host the first Counter eCrime Operations Summit (CeCOS) in San Francisco, California, May 30-31, 2007.   » Continue Reading

Julian Goldsmith reports for Silicon.com in the UK that "incidents of face-to-face credit and debit card fraud have tumbled by 67 per cent since the introduction of the chip and PIN standard 24 months ago. But card fraud overall has only dipped by a few per cent according to payments industry organisation Apacs, with much of it migrating to card-not-present (CNP) fraud and overseas transactions."

Copies of the presentations made at the recent Authentication and Online Trust Summit 2007 are available online. Included is a presentation on Ecommerce and Online Banking Fraud (PDF) presented by Karim Noorali, Sr. Product Manager, eBay, Victor Talamo, VP & Director Risk Management, JPMorganChase and Marcelo Camara Banco Bradesco Febraban - Brazilian Banking Organization.

In an article titled '13 indicted in NYC for $3 million credit card fraud", Samuel Maull of the Associated Press reports on a group of people indicted for credit card fraud perpetrated by paying restaurant staffers to skim credit card magnetic stripe details.

Gillian Shaw writes for the Vancouver Sun about the increase in debit card fraud in Canada - saying it has "more that doubled during the past three years, reaching close to $100 million in 2006."

As of Sunday,April 1, 2007, new procedures went into effect in England, Wales and Northern Ireland requiring that "banks and financial institutions become the first point of contact for cheque, plastic card and online fraud offences. In most cases consumers will be required to report instances of this type of fraud straight to their bank or building society and not to the police. It will be up to the financial institution involved, and not the account holder, to pass details of the relevant crime on to the police."   » Continue Reading

First Data International has announced findings from a study of banking fraud in Europe, Middle East and Africa in which fraud experts from 52 banks across the region called for greater co-operation in the fight against fraud while acknowledging the significant barriers that stand in the way of collaboration.   » Continue Reading

Robin Sidel reports for the Wall St. Journal on steps being taken by Visa USA, MasterCard, and merchant processors to crack down on restaurants "for not adequately protecting diners' credit-card data from thieves." SIdel reports that "since January 2005, restaurants represented about 40% of incidents in which intruders gained unauthorized access to credit-card information, according to data tracked by Visa. That is the largest percentage of incidents among merchant groups."

Today's Guardian from London has a first person article on credit card fraud by Neil Forsyth and Elliot Castro titled "Money for Nothing - Confessions of a teenage credit card fraudster."

According to a payments fraud study (PDF) released by the Association for Financial Professionals (AFP), a majority of organizations are victims of payments fraud and the incidence of fraud continues to climb. Nearly three-quarters of organizations experienced attempted or actual payments fraud in 2006, up from 68 percent reported in 2005.   » Continue Reading

APACS reported today that the 2006 card fraud figures for the UK show that total card fraud losses fell by three per cent in the past year to £428m – a decrease of nearly £80m over the past two years. Card-not-present fraud losses have increased by 16 per cent over the last two years and now account for just under 50% of all card fraud losses.

A couple of articles this Sunday advising consumers to be careful using debit cards. The first article, by Salt Lake Tribune reporter Lesley Mitchell, is titled "Debit Cards Hold Hidden Dangers". Mitchell advises using a credit card for regular purchases - not a debit card - because if your debit card is compromised, it can result in bounced checks, etc. in your checking account.

The second article, by Leslie Pappas of the Gannett News Service, is titled "Card Sharks" - and asks why the industry hasn't moved to chip cards in the US as has already happened in many other countries.

Stephen J. Dubner and Steven D. Levitt in their column for the New York Times Sunday Magazine write about identity theft - suggesting that it's not the consumer or card issuer who cards about identity theft - but, rather, it's the merchant. In the world of card not present transactions online, "If you’re a merchant, you have all the liability.”

Joseph Pereira reports for the Wall St. Journal on how merchants can be vulnerable to fraudsters attaching mag stripe skimming devices to the merchant's own point of sale systems or, amazingly, simply replacing a merchant's POS terminal with one modified by the fraudster to capture card mag stripe and PIN data - as illustrated by Stop & Shop's recent experience. Pereira cites a recent Gartner study that concluded that eighty percent of card data breaches were due to attacks on POS devices.

The 41st Parameter has announced that GSI Commerce has selected its proprietary FraudNet solution to identify client devices online to detect and prevent Internet fraud. According to the companies, "GSI, which operates eCommerce businesses for about 60 partners in 11 retail merchandise categories, uses FraudNet to identify suspect versus legitimate online devices and transactions to help prevent criminals from completing fraudulent purchases."   » Continue Reading

The Merchant Risk Council has announced the results of its annual merchant fraud survey. According to the MRC, "this year’s survey was sponsored by CyberSource Corporation as part of its broader annual survey of online fraud. The combined results show MRC Platinum merchants setting the pace for the eCommerce industry in controlling fraud and protecting valid customer orders. The Platinum merchants are 110 of the largest online sellers in the U.S. who share fraud trends and best practices through MRC committees and conferences."   » Continue Reading

The Anti-Phishing Working Group (APWG), American Bankers Association (ABA) and the Financial Services Technology Consortium (FSTC) have announced joint sponsorship of the inaugural Counter-eCrime Operations Summit (CeCOS), "a conference for counter-ecrime stakeholders focusing on the management of electronic crime events and the work of the professionals charged with engaging these increasingly threatening and costly incidents."   » Continue Reading

Leslie Pappas reports for the Wilmington News Journal on increasing debit card fraud - particularly using counterfeit cards created by skimming the magnetic stripe information off of legitimate cards. Pappas points out that "Europe, Asia, and now Canada and Mexico, are making the transition to cards equipped with computer chips and PIN numbers, which add an extra layer of security."

The Massachusetts Bankers Association said today that "several banks across the Bay State have reported incidents of fraud due to the recently disclosed data breach by the TJX Companies. The fraudulent use of debit and credit card data has thus far been used to make purchases in Florida, Georgia, and Louisiana in the U.S., and Hong Kong and Sweden overseas."   » Continue Reading

The Mercator Advisory Group has published a new research report titled "Credit Card Fraud Update: Silos Versus The Balloon Effect" examining "the incidence of a range of card fraud types, such as issuer and online retailer fraud losses, as well as less well defined or publicized fraud activities."   » Continue Reading

Anne D'Innocenzio reports for the Associated Press on a presentation made at the National Retail Federation's annual conference in New York City by Paul Cogswell, vice president of loss prevention and risk services at Comdata Stored Value Solutions. Among some of the techniques discussed, Cogswell noted that "thieves steal credit cards and then buy gift cards with [those cards]. That helps the crook "extend the life of a credit card," since most victims of stolen credit cards will immediately report a missing card."

The TJX Companies yesterday announced that "it has suffered an unauthorized intrusion into its computer systems that process and store information related to customer transactions."   » Continue Reading

Clement James reports for vnunet.com that "researchers at Cambridge University claimed last week that a flaw in the system could lead to consumers being duped by fake machines" and describes the response by APACS to the news. Jaikumar Vijayan covers the story for Computerworld. Dave Birch shares his opinion about this "threat" on the Digital Money Blog. The basic issues is that chip cards, when they also contain the mag stripe, can be skimmed and, in the right environment, the consumer's PIN can also be captured and then used to perpetrate fraud at a non-chip reading POS or ATM location (for example, in Spain or the US or many other countries).

Andrew Mayeda reports for Canada's Ottawa Citizen about increasing concerns by law enforcement officials about gift cards becoming a hit with crime syndicates - particularly open loop cards. According to Mayeda, "RCMP officers said such cards are now accepted as valid currency between crime syndicates. Instead of a suitcase of cash, operatives might show up for a drug deal with a fistful of gift cards."

Jeffrey Grau writes for eMarketer.com about CyberSource's recent survey of online ecommerce fraud that estimated ecommerce merchants in the US and Canada will lose $3.0 billion to online payment fraud in 2006, representing 1.4% of total online sales.

The Interac Association has announced that debit card fraud at gas stations across Canada has declined by more than 60 per cent over the past year. According to Interac, "the deep decline, representing about $15 million in avoided fraud losses, was largely the result of Project Protect, a joint education initiative spearheaded by Interac Association and law enforcement with support from Payment Card Partners and other industry partners."   » Continue Reading

Unisys has announced the results of a new survey concluding that "a majority of U.S. consumers fear their personal information and security will be compromised while shopping online or using online banking services this holiday season, resulting in the potential loss of significant revenue for banking and retail institutions." According to the study, concerns about bank card fraud and identity theft are so high among consumers that nearly one in every two consumers polled has ceased using online personal banking services, as well as telephone and Internet-based shopping, if the transaction requires a credit card number   » Continue Reading

Bob Tedeschi reports for the New York Times that this holiday season fraudsters are shifting their focus - reporting that "industry leaders say smaller online retailers, and those with strong gift-certificate sales, are being especially hard hit."

MasterCard's Chris Thom writes a perspective for CNET on the 40 years MasterCard's been around - concluding by predicting "not far off is the day when, through the assignment of an ever-changing access code, every transaction will be unique, incapable of being replayed and utterly useless to the criminal fraternity."

Retail Decisions says there is a swelling army of invisible thieves, perhaps the worst kind, who are pillaging online merchants via stolen credit and debit card information. Criminals use stolen credit and debit card information to fraudulently purchase items for resale.   » Continue Reading

In an article titled 'ATM System Called Unsafe", MSNBC's Bob Sullivan takes a look at issues involving the security of ATM PINs in transit between ATM machines and card issuers that were earlier outlined in a white paper published by an Israeli security firm.

Bruce Schneier blogs about a recent paper by Omer Berkman and Odelia Moshe Ostrovsky titled "The Unbearable Lightness of PIN Cracking" (PDF) saying "basically, the paper describes an inherent flaw with the way ATM PINs are encrypted and transmitted on the international financial networks, making them vulnerable to attack from malicious insiders in a bank."

Chris Dean writes for the UK's Retail Bulletin about the implementation of Chip and PIN in the UK - and what's happening to card fraud as a result - saying "rather than reducing fraud in total, identity fraudsters have simply shifted their activity to areas that Chip and PIN does not protect."

CyberSource has announced the results of its 8th Annual CyberSource Survey of eCommerce fraud - reporting that U.S. merchants will lose as much as $3 billion in eCommerce revenue to fraud in 2006, up from $2.8 billion last year. As a percent of revenue, fraud losses will be slightly less this year-merchants expect to lose 1.4% of revenue, down from 1.6% the year before, and 1.8% in 2004.   » Continue Reading

New figures released by APACS, the UK payments association, show that overall card fraud continued to decline in the six months through June 2006. Total card fraud fell by 5% during this period, from £219.5m to £209.3m, largely due to the rollout of chip and PIN. Internet, phone and mail order fraud (card-not-present or CNP fraud) has increased but at a much slower rate than seen previously. CNP fraud now accounts for 46% of all losses but grew by just 5% year-on-year, compared to a 29% increase between 2004 and 2005. Online bank fraud losses rose by 55% from £14.5m in the first six months of 2005 to £22.5m in the same period this year.   » Continue Reading

Jaikumar Vijayan writes for Computerworld about the MasterCard Online Fraud Monitor that MasterCard announced recently being developed with Basepoint Analytics to address PIN-debit fraud.

Entrust has announced that it is collaborating with VeriSign in proposing a new fraud intelligence network. The two companies have prepared an IETF Internet Draft document titled "How to Share Transaction Fraud (Thraud) Report Data".   » Continue Reading

Two stories this morning about fraudsters and their methods - one from the Government Accountability Office examining the level of "trafficking" in food stamp benefit programs and the other from the Wall St. Journal examining the increasing sophistication of outright retail theft.   » Continue Reading

According to a survey commissioned by the Canadian Interac Association, and conducted by The Strategic Counsel, 92 per cent of Canadians recognize the importance of shielding their PIN at a bank machine or a debit card terminal. However, 60 per cent do not always shield their PIN if they believe nobody can see them entering it, and 37 per cent do not always shield their PIN even if they believe somebody can see them entering it.   » Continue Reading