Tag: fraud

High-risk Trends Series: Fraud and Scams

By lowering the barriers to entry into the payments system for many legitimate merchants, the payment facilitator model potentially becomes attractive to bad actors as well. This means that payment facilitators have to stay well-informed about the biggest risks to their own portfolios, so they can remain vigilant in protecting them.

This week, we continue an occasional series on the high-risk trends that are facing payment facilitators with a look at recent frauds and scams.

Shopify Rolling Out Fraud Protect to U.S. Merchants

Shopify has begun rolling out its Fraud Protect product to select merchant customers in the U.S.
When sellers opt in, Shopify will issue a refund and manage the dispute on a fraudulent transaction it has deemed “protected.”

Payment Security: The Developer’s Duty

Merchants want ease of use. Customers want mobile. Everyone wants security.

Fraud Protection Partnership: Five Critical Questions Payment Facilitators Should Be Asking

Fraud is something you never think about until it happens. Unfortunately, millions of people are finding out first hand just how frustrating the whole experience can be.

If Chargebacks And False Declines Are The Problem, PFs Are A Solution

Chargebacks and false declines present many problems to merchants and issuers alike but where there’s complications, there’s payment facilitator opportunity, says one risk management expert.

“Whereas merchants may not be familiar with all aspects of payment processing and risk management controls, payment facilitators provide affordable accessibility to systems, knowledge and focused expertise that may otherwise be unattainable,” says Marcus Smith, the senior vice president of risk management for processor iPayment Inc. “Due to scale and buying power, payment facilitators can also allow merchants to benefit from their data acquisition, proprietary and third party technology and other value added service that meet the needs of their aggregate clientele. Ultimately, payment facilitators can eliminate various administrative costs and distractions allowing merchants to place their money, time and attention on managing and growing their business.”

PIN Is Not A Win. Merchants Don’t Get That

Don’t pin your hopes on PIN. That’s the advice of a report from the Aite Group, which claims that the cost of having to implement PIN for all card transactions, especially for merchants who don’t already have PIN pads, may just not be worth the expense considering the limited impact on fraud and merchant liability.

The report “Chip Cards in the United States: The PIN, PINless, Debit, Credit Conundrum” says because merchants misunderstand fraud and their own liability risks, a large majority (65 percent of those surveyed) are in favor of implementing chip and PIN in EMV card transactions. None of the issuers surveyed were in favor of it.

On China’s Payments SuperHighway, Regulators Stomp The Brakes And AsiaPay Hits The Gas

When you drive on rough roads you don’t have to slow down, but you do steer more carefully, guiding your car to smoother surfaces. Chinese payment facilitator AsiaPay is welcoming China’s recent regulation tightening as a move to help clean up the country’s payments industry’s fraud-infested reputation. AsiaPay is reading the new road sign as it zooms by, according to our interview with its CEO Joseph Chan, a key player in the massive payments market that is China.

How massive? In their 2015 report on global payments, Capgemini and the Royal Bank of Scotland said China’s non-cash transaction volume growth in 2013 led the world’s countries at 37 percent, with the region they call Emerging Asia (India, China, Hong Kong and other Asian countries) leading global regions with more than 21 percent growth. Alipay and WeChat are the dominant third party service providers in the online and mobile payments. ApplePay and SamsungPay have entered the market as well, though they use NFC rather than the QR code conduit favored by Alipay and WeChat.

Fraud And Compliance And Rules, Oh My!

The pain of keeping all the rules and regulations straight for a payment facilitator is only exceeded by the pain of not keeping them straight. A PF has to protect itself from merchant problems with underwriting and monitoring, while adhering to the mandates from card brands and acquirers. It’s a lot now, but as everyone knows, there’s more coming.

As heard in this week’s edition of the PaymentFacilitator.com podcast, the best PFs can do to mitigate excessive regulation from without is to do more within, said Rich Consulting president Deana Rich, moderator of the session Emerging Threats Cage Match: Compliance v. Fraud at the second annual Payment Facilitator Day at Transact 16 in April.

PayPal’s New Fraud Rules Are Key For PFs

PayPal announced Wednesday (May 4) a series of payments policy changes, including late-to-the-game restrictions on gift cards, a longtime favorite cyberthief tool. Given PayPal’s massive marketshare, payment facilitators need to watch closely any policy changes the no-longer-Ebay-unit makes. In short, any fraud-related changes that PayPal makes gives political cover for any PF to mimic the move.

The biggest change is that PayPal is now excluding “items equivalent to cash, including gift cards” from its PayPal Seller Protection program. It made a similar change to its Purchase Protection program by “clarifying the exclusion for items equivalent to cash to now include stored value items such as gift cards and pre-paid cards.” A few other items that will no longer be supported by purchase protection—at least as of June 25, when the new rules are scheduled to kick in—are payments on crowdfunding platforms, “gambling, gaming and/or any other activity with an entry fee and a prize” and “anything purchased from or an amount paid to a government agency.”

Home Depot Payment Card Fraud Via HR Records

In a big company, when it’s suspected that someone is misusing company data to steal money from other employees, the first call is supposed to be to human resources. But what if the fraud is being perpetrated by a couple of HR staffers? That’s what happened at Home Depot.

The two Home Depot HR people, Paulette Shorter and Lakisha Grimes, were sentenced to two years and one day in federal prison. According to the feds, the HR staffers used Home Depot personnel files to extract names, social security numbers and birthdates to apply online for Capital One payment cards. They used the names and data not only of Home Depot employees, but of job applicants, too.