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12:57 PM
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You could be the next victim of a $2 billion criminal enterprise

Another unintended consequence of fraud-fighting. As banks issue more and more EMV-compliant cards in order to reduce the counterfeiting of credit and debit cards, fraudsters are turning to other less protected avenues to get their hands on your money.

This is according to a new report titled “Contact Centers: The Fraud Enable Channel.” by Boston-based Aite Group LLC.

One such avenue is your bank’s contact center, the place you call when you have a problem with your card or account. Fraudsters will order replacement cards on your account and thus take it over. Sometimes this requires your personal information stolen in another crime like a data breach or easily poached through social media.

Perpetrators of this type of crime can also request that a new person be added to your account with a new card being issued to him. He could also ask to open a new account in your name using your personal data, which he has already stolen.

Because these ID thieves have already stolen your personal data they know where you live and can stake out your mailbox and intercept the new card while you are at work, before you ever see it. Thus, adding mail theft to his list of criminal offenses.  And the nature of the crime is such that you would never even know that a new card was on its way.

One of these thieves might also call the help desk and pretend he is you while traveling and claim to need your account number in order to make an online purchase.

Counterfeit cards is a $2 billion a year illicit business is the U.S. ¾ of financial institutions contacted by Aite about contact-center fraud said this type of fraud is on the upswing.  Of the institutions that have seen a rise in fraud. 17% say it has jumped at least 25% in the prior year. For the report Aite interviewed 25 executives from 18 of the 40 largest financial institutions.

To read the Aite report on contact center fraud, visit the Aite website at aitegroup.com/report/contact-centers-fraud-enablement-channel
1:34 PM
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Why consumers continue to resist mobile payments

Banks, retailers, phone and tech companies have spent millions of dollars developing and marketing systems that will allow us to make purchases using our mobile phones. All of this effort rests on a belief that buyers will arrive at the conclusion that paying by phone is faster and more convenient than pulling out a wallet in the checkout line and paying with cash.

Despite this massive technology push, only the smallest fraction of in-store sales are paid for by customers using mobile phones. According to data gathered by research firm eMarketing. the  percentage of in-store sales in the United States made using mobile phones in 2015 was 0.02

 Some of the reasons mobile purchasing has been slow to catch on include security concerns as well as doubts that mobile is faster or more convenient than paying with a debit or credit card. A Peter Eavis story in the New York Times provides a deeper understanding of this issue.

Adoption of mobile pay has also been slowed by technology hurdles. For example many mobile pay applications use a technology called near field communication or NFC. Many older payment terminals do not have NFC capability. This means that customers wishing to use their mobile pay app at those merchant locations will be out-of -luck.

Mobile pay services also may offer other services to allay security concerns. For example 2-factor authentication using a biometric can harden a purchase transaction to the point where it is sounder than cash.

Some services use technology that permits the phone to transmit a credit card payment without sending certain card elements to the store’s  payment system.

But because federal law insulates credit and debit card holders from responsibility for most fraudulent charges, securing the mobile pay app may not be enough of an incentive to spur the growth of the market.