Despite the technology, manipulation fraud continues

The fight against payment fraud is a battle fought on two fronts: on the one hand the systematic use of increasingly secure technologies, and on the other hand a focus on vigilance and customer manipulation to try to stop fraudsters from exploiting these technologies.

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In the first half of 2023, the amount of fraud involving cashless means of payment (transfer, direct debit, card and check) amounted to 628 million euros, which is 5% more than in the first six months of 2022, according to figures published, Thursday 25 January, Payment Means By Security Observatory (OSMP).

The card, whose transaction volume share now exceeds 62% with the increase in contactless payments (+16% in volume, +21% in amount), retains its title as the most targeted payment method by fraudsters. : It alone represents 93% of fraud cases and 42% of the total amount concerned. Its fraud rate, meaning the amount defrauded compared to all transactions, rose slightly after two years of decline, due to a growing share of Internet transactions, which are more targeted.

Risk assessment tools

The mobile payment fraud rate, however, has tripled in a year, a success that the Observatory attributes to the gradual generalization of “strong authentication” processes, which combine at least two verification factors, for example a code and a fingerprint, to register the card at the mobile terminal. To perform or validate one transaction after another.

Another development: risk assessment tools used by payment service providers. The purpose of these “scoring” methods is to determine the likelihood of fraud in a transaction by comparing its characteristics with available data on the customer, their previous transactions or their consumption habits, to detect those that are unusual.

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These methods make it possible, for example, if the card holder recently their municipality. Preventing the use of the card number for in-store payments in a foreign country if withdrawn from an ATM while residing in France.

User awareness

But technology still struggles to sustainably reduce two proven and dangerous practices. The first fraud is check remittance fraud, which uses “mules” often recruited on social networks or dating sites, who steal cash or fake checks and then transfer them to the fraudster, who quickly disappear. . .

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