Contactless Fraud Scare? Not So Fast.
Breathless reports point to a terrifying increase in U.K. contactless fraud. Dig a little deeper, however, and the story changes.
Financial Crime & Fraud
Want to Fight Fraud? Join the Team—Literally
All payment providers and merchants grasp the dynamic nature of fraud. But fraud prevention requires more than the latest software and security protections—it requires active collaboration. Here’s why.
Visa Bolsters Transaction Security
Visa is beefing up its Verified by Visa authentication service. The payments network said it’s upgrading its back-end to support 3-D Secure 2.0. The 3-D Secure messaging protocol was invented by the network more than 15 years ago and has become an industry standard for online authentication.
Fintech funding round-up: 30 May 2017
It’s all go for money flow. Our latest fintech funding round-up, featuring NetGuardians, Banco BNI Europa, Raize and Wave. Swiss fraud prevention vendor NetGuardians has reported a Series C investment of CHF 8.5 million ($8.7 million). The investors in this round are Swisscom Ventures and Freemont Management. The financing will be used to fund NetGuardians’ […]
Chipotle Blames Malware for Payment Card Data Breach
Chipotle Mexican Grill said that whoever hacked into payments system used malware that searched for consumer track data read from the magnetic stripes of cards.
Cognitive computing is not cognitive at all
IBM are not doing “cognitive computing” no matter how many times they say they are.
Mobile Wallets to Boost Convenience for EBT Recipients
Move over prepaid cards. Mobile wallets might be be able to solve for fraud and instant delivery of benefits better than any piece of plastic.
Blockchain: not the silver bullet against fraud that many expect it to be
Anyone that picks up any business publication has no doubt read about blockchain. Conceptualised around the same time as the financial crisis in 2008, blockchain as originally conceived served as a digital ledger to publicly record cryptocurrency transactions and execute contracts.
Barclays backs British fraud fightback
Barclays has unveiled its new £10 million digital safety drive in the UK as it wants to increase the public’s awareness of financial fraud risks. As part of its plan, it will offer new debit card choices to let customers turn on and off remote spending and change ATM limits. It has revealed a new […]
Hackers cybersquatting on hundreds of UK bank domains
Cybersquatters have wormed their way onto hundreds of websites and are tricking web users into thinking they’re clicking on to UK high street bank websites. According to research by DomainTools, a DNS-based cyber threat intelligence firm, it found 324 registered domains using the trademarked names of five of the UK’s top high street banks – […]
BBVA buys Mexican payments start-up Openpay
BBVA Bancomer, a fully owned subsidiary of BBVA, has acquired Mexico-based payments start-up Openpay to tap into its network of more than 15,000 payment reception points across the country. Openpay offers a platform for physical and electronic payments for businesses via its real-time Paynet network. According to BBVA, the start-up manages more than one million […]
U.S. EMV Hits Milestone: 1 Billion Visa Chip Transactions in March
U.S. EMV use has hit a milestone. Visa said that for the first time, the number of Visa chip card transactions topped 1 billion last month, a 330 percent increase from March 2016. The announcement comes as the payment network reported a 42 percent overall increase in processed transactions in its 2017 fiscal second quarter.
Kid me not fraud with GoHenry digital deal
GoHenry, a UK-based digital banking solution to help young people manage their money, has appointed fraud prevention firm Featurespace to safeguard customers’ accounts. GoHenry was founded by a group of parents to help young people aged six to 18 “learn good money habits”. It is a subscription service, which offers a prepaid debit card and […]
SWIFT Strengthens Security with New Payment Controls
SWIFT has launched a real-time payment controls service to add to its customers’ existing fraud controls. The fraud and cybercrime prevention service permits its customers to screen their payment messages according to their own chosen parameters, “enabling them to immediately detect any unusual message flows before transmission,” according to an April 12 company announcement.
Swift calling time on cybercrime with new payment controls
Swift has unveiled a new real-time payment controls service to add to its customers’ existing fraud controls. The new fraud and cybercrime prevention service will enable its customers to screen their payment messages according to their own chosen parameters, “enabling them to immediately detect any unusual message flows before transmission”. Yawar Shah, chairman of Swift, […]
Bank of England implicated in Libor rigging by secret recording
A secret recording that implicates the Bank of England (BoE) in Libor rigging has been uncovered by the current affairs programme, BBC Panorama. Libor (London Interbank Offered Rate) is used by banks to set prices of financial products. Last year, several ex-Barclays workers were found guilty of manipulating the Libor interest rate between 2005 and […]
Woes for Wonga with data breach
UK-based payday loan company Wonga says there may have been illegal and unauthorised access to the personal data of some of its 270,000 customers. In a statement, the firm says information stolen may have included one or more of the following: name, e-mail address, home address, phone number, the last four digits of a card […]
Are You Protected from Contact Center Fraud?
Payments companies are used to defending themselves against fraud from all sorts of angles, but they would do well to mind the phones. By 2020, 75 percent of omni-channel, customer-facing companies will face a targeted attack, with the contact center as the primary point of compromise, according to Gartner research.
Credit Card Complaints Increase in CFPB’s Latest Snapshot Report
Billing disputes and fraud, identity theft and embezzlement are among the most common complaints that consumers have about their credit cards, according to the CFPB.
Financial fraud fools UK out of £769m
Impersonation and deceptive double-dealing play their mischievous part in creating massive amounts of financial fraud in the UK. According to figures from Financial Fraud Action UK (FFA UK), losses across payment cards, remote banking and cheques totalled £768.8 million in 2016, an increase of 2% on the previous year. Katy Worobec, director of FFA UK, […]
Wells Fargo settles account-scandal claims but runs afoul of federal regulator
Wells Fargo will pay $110 million to settle a class action lawsuit brought by US consumers over a scandal about fake accounts its employees set up for customers without their knowledge. But the trouble continues for the bank, which has received a dim evaluation from a federal regulator.
Mastercard buys NuData Security for IoT spree
Mastercard will acquire Vancouver-based biometrics firm NuData Security as it looks to make something out of the internet of things (IoT). NuData provides online and mobile anti-fraud solutions using session and biometric indicators. Mastercard will integrate NuData to its suite of fraud management and security products. Ajay Bhalla, president of enterprise risk and security for […]
A vaccination for financial crime
ransaction monitoring is emerging as one of the top priorities for banks and other financial institutions. Some now employ up to three per cent of their workforce to track financial crime. But, as leadership teams look to increase the effectiveness of their processes in the face of regulatory scrutiny and reduce costs, are there lessons to be learnt from health industry and its battle against infectious diseases?
Criminals turn their attention to online fraud in the US
Criminals have deepened their focus on U.S. online transactions since the country’s October 2015 EMV liability shift, with card-not-present fraud expected to hit $6.4 billion in 2018, according to a new report from the U.S. Payments Forum. The expected total would represent a 23 percent increase from fraud losses in 2017, and a 68 percent increase from 2016.
Wells Fargo faces new pressure over fake accounts
The top Democrat on the US House Financial Services Committee wants to interview executives from Wells Fargo over a scandal about fake accounts its employees set up for customers.
Wells Fargo Faces New Pressure from Top Democrat over Fake Accounts
The top Democrat on the U.S. House Financial Services Committee wants to interview executives from Wells Fargo over a scandal about fake accounts its employees set up for customers. Last year, the CFPB announced a $100 million fine against Wells Fargo for what the agency called “widespread unlawful sales practices.” The agency said the fine was the largest such penalty it has ever issued.
White paper: break filter bubbles in banking enterprise fraud management
Synthesise holistic wisdom from core systems and not just from channel silos. From depth of analysis, ease of configuration/implementation and cross-channel fraud detection to insider fraud detection and real-time high availability, a synchronised enterprise fraud risk management approach delivers five compelling advantages over a delivery channel silos only approach.
How to Fight Fraudsters without Losing Legitimate Customers
An analysis of a real fraud situation shows that some barriers to fraud can potentially drive away valuable customers. Here’s what to do—and not to do—when criminals target your cards.
Verifone Investigates Breach that Targeted U.S. Merchants
Terminal maker Verifone says it’s investigating a breach that involved an attempt to get into its corporate network and targeted U.S. merchants. The company, which sells point-of-sale technology, says the Jan. 17 incident has not resulted in any misuse of data.
US credit unions aim to cut down call centre fraud with new tech
Hoping to put a dent in a method of fraud that costs US companies $10 billion annually, PSCU, a credit union service organisation that serves 850+ credit unions, will use technology from Pindrop.
Cybersecurity: computers or humans – where does the threat lie?
Digitalisation plays a key role in the fight against payment fraud. Yet Commerzbank’s cybercrime specialists in cash services show that even in this technologically advanced environment, security threats persist. Companies must take steps to ensure that human beings – as well as computers – are protected against crime.
Blockchain and Bitcoin round-up: 22 February 2017
Jargon defeated. Unnecessary words deleted. A brief round-up. Featuring Adel, Bitfinex and crime. If something’s rotten in the state of Denmark, it’s going to get found out. Danish newspaper Berlingske has revealed that police stopped drug traffickers by tracing Bitcoin transactions. It’s not the first time great Danes have done good deeds. Last month, the […]
Global ATM Hacker Sentenced to 8 Years in Prison
The ringleader of three highly organized, global cyberattacks on ATMs resulting in $55 million in losses was sentenced Feb. 10 to eight years in prison and ordered to pay more than $55 million in restitution.
The European Banking Authority favours arbitrary box-ticking over data innovation
The European Banking Authority (EBA) recently proposed new rules that would require payment card operators to enforce additional security measures, such as passwords or security tokens, for all online transactions over €10, aimed at fraud prevention. This is a clumsy solution to a problem that is already being addressed by far more sophisticated means, argues Nick Wallace, senior policy analyst at Centre for Data Innovation, and policymakers should reject the EBA’s proposal.
Top fintech stories this week – 3 February 2017
Catch up on Banking Technology’s top five fintech stories of the week – all in one place!
U.K. Slaps Deutsche Bank with $200 Million Penalty over Money Laundering Case
The U.K.’s Financial Conduct Authority has fined Deutsche Bank £163 million (US$204.7 million) for failing to maintain adequate anti-money laundering controls between Jan. 1, 2012, and Dec. 31, 2015, according to Paybefore sister publication Banking Technology.
Trend Watch 2017: Payments Year in Review
Paybefore’s first-ever payments year-in-review report, sponsored by The Bancorp, is available now. Offering an in-depth look at key trends and the Top 10 payments stories from 2016 that will continue to shape the industry in 2017 and beyond, this must-have resource examines everything influencing the industry from the CFPB and Uber to Brexit and Trump and much more.
Cyren sounds siren over Bitcoin siphon scam
US-based internet security firm Cyren has discovered an outbreak of malware which is stealing passwords as well as Bitcoin from cryptocurrency wallets on PCs. Avi Turiel, director of threat research at Cyren, says in a blog post this “versatile” keylogger malware is being delivered as an attachment to phony bank transfer emails, which inform the […]
CIBanco deploys Swift’s compliance services suite
Mexico-based CIBanco has signed for a compliance services suite from Swift, which comprises compliance analytics and sanctions screening tools and KYC Registry.
Western Union to pay $586m fine for money transfer fraud
Western Union has admitted turning a blind eye as criminals used its money transfer services to launder money and commit fraud. It has agreed to pay a $586 million fine to the US authorities.
