http://www.merchant911.org/blog Comments on credit card fraud from the E-Commerce Merchant point of view by Tom Mahoney, Founder and Director of Merchant911.org Thu, 20 Nov 2008 22:08:54 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en PORTLAND, OR, and LITITZ, PA, – November 20, 2008 – iovation, the Device Reputation Authority™ for the Internet, and Merchant911, the premier Internet platform for educating eCommerce merchants about how to protect themselves against credit card fraud, today announced a partnership to promote the use of device-based fraud prevention solutions ... http://www.merchant911.org/blog/index.php/2008/11/20/iovation-partners-with-merchant911-to-educate-online-retailers-about-device-based-fraud-prevention-solutions/ Back in June Rick Savoia from The Force Field contacted me to do an interview about accepting credit cards on line. I agreed to do it, of course, and the telephone interview ended up covering so much material that it's being presented in two parts. The posting got delayed ... http://www.merchant911.org/blog/index.php/2008/11/01/merchant911-the-podcast/ I've gone out on a limb before. A couple of years ago I warned that Chip and PIN technology was going to cause an increase in on-line fraud. Now we know that I hit a bulls eye on that one. I've also suggested a total implosion of ... http://www.merchant911.org/blog/index.php/2008/10/21/on-line-credit-card-fraud-is-going-to-soar/ The Dark Market forum was just another good place for selling and trading credit cards. Thats the forum members thought. In reality, it was a sting operation run jointly by the FBI, the UK's Serious Organised Crime Agency (SOCA) and the National Cyber Forensics Training Alliance (NCFTA.) According to ... http://www.merchant911.org/blog/index.php/2008/10/20/credit-card-fraud-sting-nets-58-arrests/ Articles in the Times OnLine and others are reporting a new and very convincing link between credit card fraud and terrorist funding. It doesn't get much uglier than this. According to the reports, there are Chip and PIN readers deployed in more than 40 stores in the UK with extra ... http://www.merchant911.org/blog/index.php/2008/10/12/chip-and-pin-terrorism-and-boy-are-we-in-trouble/ Although Chip and PIN was marketed as a security product, we all know by now that it was really about If we can do more transactions per second we can get more money. Now Visa is offering up another Let's do it faster product that looks like it will ... http://www.merchant911.org/blog/index.php/2008/10/07/visa-creates-another-fraud-monster/ Here's a quote for you: Credit card information theft and fraud has increased at a steady pace over the last five years. It is an area of vulnerability that has been increasingly exploited. As the problem continues to evolve from physical theft to more widespread use of the Internet and technology ... http://www.merchant911.org/blog/index.php/2008/10/04/funding-terrorism-with-credit-cards/ October 1, 2008 saw the official release of Version 1.2 of the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) Version 1.2 is effective immediately and version 1.1 of the standard will die on Dec. 31, 2008. The updated standard and supporting documentation is available on the Council's Web site. The ... http://www.merchant911.org/blog/index.php/2008/10/02/version-12-of-the-pci-dss-is-official/ First there was dumpster diving, phishing, skimming and hacking. Now we have shaving to worry about. This one is unique in that it's used against card present transactions. That means all you "Brick and Mortar" merchants need to be aware of this one. It's coming to ... http://www.merchant911.org/blog/index.php/2008/09/26/credit-card-shaving-the-latest-trend/ If you've been following this blog for more than a week or so, you've read about some of the problems with Chip and PIN cards. First, they are an improvement of sorts but they are not as secure as the credit card industry wants us to believe. But ... http://www.merchant911.org/blog/index.php/2008/09/17/united-states-credit-card-fraud-is-about-to-increase/ I read an article this morning on CBC News that literally made me snarf my morning coffee. Interchange fees, the fees that merchants pay on every credit card use, have gotten out of hand and there are numerous movements afoot to combat these increases. Not the least of ... http://www.merchant911.org/blog/index.php/2008/09/12/credit-card-quote-of-the-week/ My opinion I'm not a security expert but I've always suspected that RFID (think Chip and PIN credit cards) could be compromised. If it can be read by a legitimate reader then it can be read. If you can read it, you can do bad things with it. The ... http://www.merchant911.org/blog/index.php/2008/09/03/credit-card-companies-insecure-about-security/ If you are one of those that wonders why Identity Theft has become such a problem, wonder no more. Here's just a few reports from one week. The total - almost 2.5 Million! Insider possibly compromises 2,000,000 records, including Social Security numbers, of mortgage applicants: "Countrywide Financial Corp. data ... http://www.merchant911.org/blog/index.php/2008/08/22/why-is-identity-theft-such-a-problem/ Chip and PIN was designed to prevent fraud. Maybe it would be better to say that it was designed to prevent fraud in the areas that use it and to take the fraud losses off the banks. In that sense, it's a tremendous success. The business and financial press ... http://www.merchant911.org/blog/index.php/2008/08/16/chip-and-pin-fraud/ The history A few years ago, there were stories circulating around the Internet about hotel key cards that contained a lot of personal information including your name, your address, and your credit card number. But then a quick trip to Snopes would tell us that the stories were totally false. ... http://www.merchant911.org/blog/index.php/2008/08/12/street-level-credit-card-fraud/ A recent article at Forbes.com reported that Visa spent $1.5 million in the second quarter lobbying against Congressional consideration of the fees that they're charging merchants. Currently, Congress is considering both House and Senate bills requiring the credit card companies to negotiate fees with merchants. No surprise here ... http://www.merchant911.org/blog/index.php/2008/08/10/visa-doesnt-like-merchants/ Last week, President Bush signed the Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008 into law. Sure, another law will fix it. Hidden in the 700-page bill are a couple of totally unrelated provisions. One relates to hurricane recovery and gives tax breaks to a Canadian railcar ... http://www.merchant911.org/blog/index.php/2008/08/04/housing-bill-affects-e-commerce-merchants/ I found another one of these companies jumping on the band wagon to suck more money out of e-Commerce merchants. They think their service is useful to help prevent credit card fraud. I submit to my loyal readers that ReduceFraud.com has no more value than the others of ... http://www.merchant911.org/blog/index.php/2008/08/01/another-telephone-verification-service/ The UK press is abuzz with reports that CNP (Card Not Present) fraud is at an all-time high and growing at an alarming rate. We can all thank Chip and PIN cards for that. Chip and PIN cards did exactly what I believe it was supposed to do ... http://www.merchant911.org/blog/index.php/2008/07/29/still-another-attempt-to-prevent-credit-card-fraud/ Will it happen? I'm wanting to go way out on a limb and predict the end of credit cards as we know them. I want to, but I can't seem to find that last bit of common sense in the credit card industry that might actually make it happen - they'll ... http://www.merchant911.org/blog/index.php/2008/07/23/implosion-of-plastic/