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December 19, 2023

On the web

April 27, 2023

On the web

Scams: A Growing and Costly Problem

FedPayments Improvement

"Scams are increasingly in the news – along with astonishing estimates of the resulting losses and number of people affected. In 2022 alone, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) reported consumers lost nearly $8.8 billion to scams (Off-site) – a 35% increase from 2021 – despite receiving half a million (19%) fewer reports of scams."

April 24, 2023

On the web

April 7, 2023

On the web

Banks May Face More Liability for P2P Fraud

BAI

"What used to be a clear line between “authorized” and “unauthorized” banking transactions is blurring as the regulatory definition of an unauthorized transaction evolves in response to technology-driven changes in how customers do their banking. If a scammer tricks a consumer into giving away credentials or approving a payment or transfer, the resulting transaction could still be considered unauthorized."

March 10, 2023

On the web

February 27, 2023

On the web

Skimming Fraud Exploded in 2022

ABA Banking Journal

"U.S. card skimming grew by nearly 500% in 2022 and is showing signs it will grow even faster this year, according to a recent analysis by credit scoring services firm FICO. The firm’s data identified more than 161,000 compromised cards last year, or roughly five times the number reported in 2021."

February 16, 2023

On the wires

SumUp and Netcetera: Two European Payment Powerhouses Team Up on ACS

Businesswire

As online purchases have soared in the last few years, so has the level of online fraud. In 2021, e-commerce fraud in the UK jumped to GBP 1.3 billion. As many merchants make the transition to online stores, ensuring their transactions are protected is crucial. The Covid-19 pandemic and developing FinTech trends pushed the use of debit and credit cards, QR codes and similar for Card-Not-Present transactions, which are easier to compromise. On top of this, more and more consumers are making purchases from mobile devices. As the payment protocol 3-D Secure was originally designed for web purchases, there are additional security steps to be taken for these. OTO and OOB authentication is now mandated by payment schemes to ensure that it is really the cardholder making the purchase.

February 9, 2023

On the web

Sionic Announces Suite of Trust-Based Services for Bank-to-Bank, Verified Rapid Payments

Sionic

Sionic, a leading provider of omni-commerce, faster digital payments solutions, today announced it is launching a suite of new, trust-based services to address the significant challenges facing faster payments in the U.S. whether on The RTP® Network or upcoming FedNow™ bank rails. The services are designed to help avoid fraud that is prevalent in person-to-person (P2P) payments as is reported regularly.

Rise in Manipulation Fraud Could Result in More Regulation

IT-Online

The UK has seen a 41% increase in payer manipulation fraud, (or as they call it, Authorised Push Payments fraud or APP), in the last year. And, unless banks take a proactive approach, they could soon face some stiff regulatory pressure. This is the warning from Entersekt as the UK’s annual fraud report notes there was a 39% rise in impersonation scams with imposters masquerading as banks and police staff, and a 33% rise in fraudsters pretending to be other officials.

February 6, 2023

On the web

Fraudsters Double Down on Returns Abuse

Charged

As ecommerce grew over the past couple of years, so did the level of fraud being committed online. As digital commerce returns to pre-pandemic levels, data from Forter shows that returns abuse is holding steady, with the shadow looming larger than it has ever been before.

December 28, 2022

On the wires

LexisNexis Risk Solutions Wins Best Payment Solution at AMTD DigFin Innovation Awards

PR Newswire

“LexisNexis® Risk Solutions announced today that its suite of payment reference and validation solutions— LexisNexis® Bankers Almanac® Payments — has been named the Best Payment Solution at the AMTD DigFin Innovation Awards. The 2022 AMTD DigFin Innovation Awards, organized by DigFin, recognizes outstanding industrial leaders that excel in the fields of asset management, insurance, capital markets, banking and payments. Bankers Almanac Payments is a comprehensive, one-stop payment reference and validation solution that promotes payment accuracy and efficiency across the entire payment process, from setting up to routing and processing payments.”

December 26, 2022

On the web

Why PCI DSS 4.0 Should Be on Your Radar in 2023

The Hacker News

“PCI DSS 4.0 was released in March 2022 and will replace the current PCI DSS 3.2.1 standard in March 2025. That provides a three-year transition period for organizations to be compliant with 4.0. The latest version of the standard will bring a new focus to an overlooked yet critically important area of security. For a long time, client-side threats, which involve security incidents and breaches that occur on the customer’s computer rather than on the company’s servers or in between the two, were disregarded. But that’s changing with the release of PCI DSS 4.0. Now, many new requirements focus on client-side security.”

December 23, 2022

On the wires

Payment Card Fraud Losses Reach $32.34 Billion

GlobeNewswire News Room

“Payment card fraud losses worldwide exceeded $32 billion in 2021, of which nearly $12 billion was in the US, according to the Nilson Report, the leading trade publication covering the global payment card industry. Losses to fraud worldwide increased by 14% in 2021. Over the next 10 years, the industry is projected to lose an accumulated $397 billion worldwide, with $165 billion coming from the US. The US accounted for 37% of worldwide losses to card fraud in 2021 even though it only accounted for 23% of card spending at merchants and cash transactions at ATMs combined. Higher fraud losses in the US were attributable to a 25% increase in purchases made by credit cards after a 9% drop in 2020. Also impacting fraud in the US was the continued growth in card-not-present transactions such as those that occur when spending online. Online purchases leave merchants more vulnerable to fraud.”

December 12, 2022

On the web

Restaurant Payment Fraud: Who Is Liable?

Modern Restaurant Management

“Global financial losses from card fraud are truly staggering. A recent Nilson report projects that over $408 billion will be lost over the next decade. Credit card fraud in the UK is currently running at a five year high, according to Forbes.   Restaurants (just like anywhere that accepts card payments), have always been a target. However, much changed for food service businesses throughout the peak of the pandemic. In its wake, plenty of those changes remain.  During lockdown periods, food service businesses were forced to adapt or die. Many embraced takeaway delivery services, and had to establish new ways to process customer payments from a distance. This exposed restaurants to a much higher number of “card not present” transactions, which account for 80% of card fraud losses. What’s particularly interesting is that consumer habits learned in lockdown have stuck.”

December 7, 2022

On the web

LexisNexis Risk Solutions Global State of Fraud and Identity Report Reveals Surge in Fraud as Digital Transactions Dominate the Global Marketplace

LexisNexis Risk Solutions

“LexisNexis® Risk Solutions released the results of its first Global State of Fraud and Identity Report, exploring research and insights from industry experts on recent statistics and trends from our industry-recognized studies on the Global True Cost of Fraud and transaction data from over 39B transactions from the LexisNexis® Digital Identity Network® from January 2022 to June 2022. The report demonstrates how digital transactions dominated the global marketplace as the pandemic-driven trend of consumers migrating to online interactions became commonplace behavior. Digital transactions in the LexisNexis Digital Identity Network rose by 37% YoY for the period.”

December 6, 2022

On the web

Bank Card Fraud Exploded During the Pandemic. Then Came the Bot Hiring Boom (Video)

CNBC

“Banks getting bigger is nothing new. The 2019 merger between two big banks, BB&T and SunTrust, which created Truist, was the largest in roughly a decade for the sector, and as big deals do, it led to a review of inefficiencies and opportunities, including in the back office. As Jarel Hawkins, senior vice president of enterprise intelligent automation recently told CNBC at its Technology Executive Council Summit, the infrastructure and architecture was about five years behind and in need of modernization. But it was the pandemic as much as the deal itself which led to one important change in how the company looked at the combination of human workforce and technology.   The use of digital banking boomed during the pandemic lockdowns and that led to an exponential growth in fraud. This led Truist to bring in robotic automation processing company UiPath to scale up its use of bots in the fraud process, and scale it down to the level of low-dollar transactions it previously would not have scrutinized as closely. Fraud was costing the bank a significant amount of money, but previous to the pandemic, employing a human workforce for every charge was not an efficient or economic way to solve the problem. The costs of the fraud were being refunded to consumers, but the bank was not claiming the costs back from payment processors.”

Authorized Fraud, Myth or Reality?

Biometric Update

“Around the globe, we are seeing the rise of a new type of fraud, that of authorized fraud. Unauthorized fraud is easy to spot, account take over and third party fraud is rife, with frequent news coverage about fraudsters utilising OTPs to help them successfully execute their plans But authorized fraud is quite different and looks like a legitimate transaction made by the genuine user, but is, in reality, someone who has been tricked or coerced into action by social engineering tactics deployed by fraudsters. As an indication of how bad the problem is in the Asia Pacific, Malaysians reported 51,631 online fraud cases. In the Philippines, Globe Telecom blocked over 30 million suspected spam or scam SMS messages in just a two week period; and phone scams in Hong Kong shot up 60% in the first seven months of 2022. Authorized fraud relies on impersonation, a legitimate sounding request for money, payment for fake goods or services, unpaid tax, or even that the victims bank account has been compromised and they need to move their money to a safe account. By using social engineering techniques designed to cause victims stress and panic, the fraudster strikes.”

On the wires

The Rise and Fall of Wirecard

Reuters

“Payments company Wirecard collapsed in 2020 in Germany’s biggest post-war fraud scandal. A trial will start in Munich on Thursday, with former Chief Executive Markus Braun facing charges. Braun denies wrongdoing. The following timeline summarises the developments that led to the collapse of the company, as well as key moments since…”

September 9, 2022

On the web

Central Bankers’ New Cybersecurity Challenge

International Monetary Fund

“In the typically cautious world of central banking, the idea of a central bank digital currency (CBDC) is moving at lightning speed. Atlantic Council GeoEconomics Center research shows that 105 countries and currency unions are currently exploring the possibility of launching a CBDC, either retail—issued to the general public—or wholesale, used primarily for interbank transactions. That’s up from an estimated 35 as recently as 2020. It is not just smaller economies that are interested, either; 19 Group of Twenty (G20) countries are considering issuing CBDCs, and the majority have already progressed beyond the research stage. But as more countries launch CBDC pilot projects, concerns about cybersecurity and privacy loom large. Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell recently listed “cyber risk” as his number one worry relating to financial stability, and a recent UK House of Lords report specifically described cybersecurity and privacy risks as potential reasons not to develop a CBDC.”

August 2, 2022

On the web

Dark Web Credit Card Fraud Less Pervasive But Still an Ongoing Problem

TechRepublic

“Stolen credit card data is always a hot item for sale on the Dark Web, particularly if the package includes not just the card number but the expiration date and CVV code. To crack down on fraud, card vendors have long since turned away from stripe-only cards to those with embedded security chips that not only use encryption to secure transactions but are more difficult to clone. A recent report from cyber intelligence provider Cybersixgill looks at the current state of credit card fraud on the Dark Web. For its “Underground Financial Fraud H1 2022 report,” Cybersixgill found that more than 4.5 million stolen payment cards were up for sale on the Dark Web during the first half of 2022. Though this number is a significant drop of 68% from the more than 14 million such cards discovered during the last half of 2021, this still represents a substantial amount of fraud. Almost half (45%) of the cards for sale on underground markets were issued in the United States.”

June 3, 2022

On the web

Decentralized ID Offers a Human Approach to Identity in Cyberspace

Fast Company

“The nature of the digital world is that organizations, people, software, and devices are connected. This is what enables digital experiences, from business analytics to gaming and shopping.    But with millions of digital interactions happening every second, we’ve reached a scale that is difficult to comprehend, with almost limitless interdependencies. This creates an ever-expanding attack surface with more and more vulnerabilities. For example, today there are 921 password attacks every second, and new threats to our online identities are constantly emerging.”

May 2, 2022

On the web

April 22, 2022

On the web

Apple Pay Upgrading Fraud Prevention Features Based on Device, Location, and More

9to5Mac

“If you checked your Wallet app today, you might have noticed that it features a notification badge there – this is because Apple Pay is upgrading fraud prevention features for some cards. Here’s what we know so far about this function.   As noticed by Twitter users and 9to5Mac staff, some cards are showing a notification about this ”enhanced fraud prevention” feature. Here’s what Apple says: “For cards with certain enhanced fraud prevention, when you attempt an online or in-app transaction, your device will evaluate information about your Apple ID, device, and location (if you have enabled Location Services), to develop fraud prevention assessments, which are used by Apple to identify and prevent fraud.”

April 21, 2022

On the web

Euro Notches Biggest Drop as Global Payment Currency Since 2011

Bloomberg

“The euro is being used less often as a global payment currency, posting its biggest percentage-point drop in more than a decade in March, as inflation and the war in Ukraine weigh on its appeal for transactions.  Meanwhile, the U.S. dollar remained in the top spot for a 10th consecutive month, and has dominated global payments for the most part since 2013, according to data from the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunications, or SWIFT.”

April 20, 2022

On the web

TSB warns impersonation fraud has surged by 300% – signs to look out for

Yorkshireeveningpost

“Impersonation fraud is an attack in which a criminal impersonates a company, business, organisation or individual as a key component, and reported cases have soared by 300% since 2019. Retail banking company, TSB , has warned people to be on the alert for scammers as cases of impersonation fraud soar. TSB said the average victim of impersonation fraud loses £4,000, and household names like Royal Mail, Amazon and BT are used to lure unsuspecting people into sending money to scammers.    Paul Davis, director of fraud prevention at the bank, said: “Households are bombarded with scam calls, texts and emails every day.”

April 5, 2022

On the web

How Walmart Thwarted $4 Million in Elder Gift Card Scams

CNBC

“Technology developed by Walmart helped the retail giant identify and freeze nearly $4 million in gift cards that had been bought by thousands of primarily elderly victims at the direction of con artists who duped them, according to court records and the company. The U.S. Department of Justice, after being notified by Walmart, recently seized that money through a federal court action in Arkansas. Now victims of the frauds can claim the money.”

Block Says Ex-Worker Downloaded Cash App Customer Data – Law360

law360

“Financial technology giant Block Inc. disclosed in a securities filing Monday that a former employee downloaded brokerage account information from its subsidiary Cash App without permission, saying it had notified 8.2 million customers about the security incident. Block said the information included names, brokerage account numbers — which are associated with a user’s stock activity on Cash App Investing — and, for some, brokerage portfolio value, brokerage portfolio holdings and stock trading activity for one trading day.”

On the wires

April 4, 2022

On the wires

April 1, 2022

On the web

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