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Social networking meets the credit card industry – in a new way this time.  Although, I’m sure a recent new venture would have preferred a more favorable type of news release.

Blippy, a new social networking site which allows users to share their credit card purchases, unintentionally exposed the financial information of some of its members.  Continue reading "Social Sharing Networks and Data Protection"

According to the U.S Internet Crime Complaint Center in 2004, there were more than 207,000 internet fraud reports in the United States alone. One type of online fraud that most people are familiar with is a scam run on Craigslist where the seller receives an email from a prospective buyer offering to send a cashier’s check to purchase the advertised item. By the time you find out the check is not valid, they have already picked up your product. In addition, they often over pay you for your item in the cashier’s check and ask for money to be sent back to them.

Online fraud has evolved and is no longer limited to strangers and stolen cards. Fraud can even come directly from the people you hire to market your products. A type of this kind of fraud is called affiliate fraud and involves affiliate networks. An affiliate network acts as an intermediary between publishers (affiliates) and merchant affiliate programs. They are the people that you hire to drive customers to your site and manage your affiliate activity.

Continue reading "Where are Some Types of Online Fraud Coming From?"

Every day more businesses are going out of business and layoffs continue to plague the nation. The traditional brick-and mortar merchant may slowly become a thing of the past. Many are trying their hand at home based businesses and internet ventures. Over the past year we have seen a significant rise in companies like mortgage restructuring, debt consolidation, and various classified offerings online. Although these types of businesses are lucrative, they come with great risk to their owners and the acquirers that take on the challenge of processing credit cards for them.

Most may think that banks are not taking on these types of credit card accounts because of the financial state of our banks. There is a big difference between the acquiring side of banking and the issuing side. In fact the acquiring side that handles credit card processing in the banking industry seems to be the only piece still making money and I predict they will continue to generate revenue. There are acquirers out there that are designed to specifically cater to high risk types of online businesses and have flourished in these industries. To make sure your new venture does not turn out to be a big loss, it is important to look for more than just a card processor to partner with.

Some important items to look for when starting a high risk business online:

Continue reading "Does High Risk Mean Big Opportunity or More Losses?"

Password security is important and knowing the different types of identity theft is great, but what are the best ways to prevent identity theft? Many believe that PCI compliance does not affect them because they are not a payment processor or don’t run a gateway. This is a common mistake and can cost online businesses a lot of money. This doesn’t mean you need to be paranoid about being a company that is going to be the victim of identity theft. Use common sense and ask yourself if strangers are able to access your personal information.

Here are some tips to help prevent identity theft:

Continue reading "Online Network Security Must Haves – Part 3"

Part one of this series talked about identity thieves wanting your password, and we discussed ways to protect against having your passwords compromised. Securing your password seems to be only 25 percent of the battle these days. Many network security breaches, like the Heartland Breach, occurred from within. So it is important to be PCI Compliant internally and know who is working for you.

I wish there were a specific set of characteristics I could post to detect an identity thief, but unfortunately they are as broad as the criminal population itself.  I like to divide attacks by criminals into two categories: internal attacks and external attacks.

Internal attacks are usually traced back to disgruntled, dishonest, and/or careless employees. Some common characteristics of an internal attack are:

Continue reading "Online & Network Security Must Haves – Part 2"

The word “hacker” is often associated with the terms crime and fraud. However, hackers can be a good defense against online fraud, such as the “white hat” hackers that work to prevent fraud and fight identity theft. Unfortunately, white hat hackers aren’t as common as criminal hackers. 

It is important to first understand what different types of identity theft occur, and then you can find out how to get protection.

The easiest item for a criminal or hacker to obtain is your password. Some common mistakes made when setting up passwords is using names of kids, birthdates, or hometowns. Spelling your child’s name backwards is another frequent mistake. I have even seen people write their passwords on a sticky note, in a notebook or in your PDA. Do not give office assistants your passwords. Remember passwords are used in more than 90 percent of all online network security practices. People use passwords for online banking, shopping, stock trading, and network logons. It is imperative to create a strong password. 

Continue reading "Online & Network Security Must Haves – Part 1"

In 2005, a credit card giant was brought down by a massive security breach. It was said that at least 68,000 MasterCard account numbers were taken from the CardSystems database and that approximately 40 million cards of various brands were exposed. Since this breach, we have implemented PCI DSS and have come a long way in fighting these types of security breaches…or so we thought.

On Tuesday January 20^th, 2009 Heartland Payment Systems, a New Jersey based payment processor, disclosed that they had been hacked. Heartland Payment Systems processes about 100 million transactions a month for over 250,000 merchants. Although Heartland has not released numbers on how many card numbers have been compromised, it has been said that this breach will set a historic record. A breach of this magnitude will no doubt create a surge in fraudulent transactions all across a wide range of ecommerce sites and affect online purchases for a long time.

Continue reading "Heartland Security Breach Shakes the Card Processing Industry"

The Federal Trade Commission announced that “creditors” will not have to worry about fines associated with non compliance with Red Flag Rules until May 1^st 2009. A creditor is defined as any entity that extends, renews, or continues credit and any entity that regularly arranges for the extension, renewal, or continuation of credit. For example, mortgage brokers, utility companies and automobile dealers are classified as creditors.

This decision to extend is said to be largely due to complaints from creditors that they were unaware of the existence of the new regulation and some say they only found out after the deadline had passed. This deadline according to the official press release only applies to organizations that are not under the jurisdiction of any of the other regulatory agencies other than the Federal Trade Commission. FACTA requires financial institutions and creditors to implement a written identity theft prevention program that should help detect identity theft, hopefully before any damage is done. If identity theft is not detected, the regulation calls for the financial institution or the creditor to reduce the risk to the consumer and the organization.

Continue reading "Red Flag Compliance Deadline Extended"

It used to be that if you got a faulty product, poor service or were simply double charged, you decided to chargeback the purchase. With today’s economy and fraud on the rise, chargebacks are becoming more main stream and more purchases are being made with stolen cards. Losses of jobs cause people to simply think twice about their purchases, or people simply keep the product and claim they never received it.

Illegitimate chargebacks are costing business owners, and it’s time to fight back against dishonest customers and fraud. I have surveyed 50 of my online merchants and found that most of their chargebacks come from people who order items online, and then in an attempt to keep the product without paying for it, dispute it. I consider this shoplifting.

Part of the problem seems to stem largely from regulations put in place stating anyone can dispute any charge for any reason. Naturally, crooks will use these regulations to their full advantage.

Many online merchants are losing the battle against chargebacks and feel there is nothing they can do. Online merchants should not give up; not all chargebacks are final. The best option is to respond to the chargeback letter immediately. Keep in mind that if your bank still honors the chargeback, you have the right to go after the consumer plus any costs you incur as a result.

Some key tips for combating against chargebacks are:

Continue reading "Can Chargebacks Set your Business Back?"