As both a data junkie and someone interested in payments fraud, I must admit that I am envious of my colleagues across the pond in the United Kingdom. The Financial Fraud Action UK recently released Fraud the Facts 2013, its annual report providing insight and data on payments fraud in the U.K. financial services industry. Unfortunately, no such report exists in the United States.
This year's report drives home two key points that were discussed at our July 31 Improving Customer Authentication forum. First, the enrollment process is a critical initial step in securing transactions. Enrolling a fraudster can only result in fraudulent transactions. Second, consumer education remains an important aspect of mitigating fraud—a topic we at the Risk Forum have written and spoken on extensively. Despite the fact that the United Kingdom uses the EMV standard—which is based on chip card technology—overall payment card fraud increased by 14 percent from 2011 to 2012. Among its many insights, the report reinforces the idea that EMV adoption alone will not keep fraud from occurring.
Aside from the usual suspects of card-not-present (CNP) fraud and cross-border fraud in non-EMV countries, the report mentions two other contributors to payment card fraud growth that captured my attention. One, card ID theft fraud, which includes application fraud (using stolen or fake documents to open an account) and account takeover fraud (using another person’s credit or debit card account by posing as the genuine cardholder), increased by 42 percent from 2011 to 2012. Two, criminals have resorted to using "low-tech deception crimes" to convince consumers to part with their cards, PINs, and passwords.
The important takeaway I got from this report is that no matter the technology or standard used on payment cards, it remains critical to keep personally identifiable information protected and to continue to educate consumers about sound payment practices. The industry could use the most sophisticated and secure solutions to authorize and authenticate transactions, but those sophisticated, secure solutions can do very little to prevent the use of accounts established fraudulently.
Criminals are exploiting weaknesses in both the enrollment process and consumer behavior. These weaknesses are not something a chip-embedded card can solve.
So what tools can and should the industry use to prevent a criminal from using a stolen or synthetic identity to open an account? Do you think information available through social media could play a role in this process? We would value your thoughts.
By Douglas A. King, payments risk expert in the Retail Payments Risk Forum at the Atlanta Fed