Monday, May 18, 2009

Online Banking Customers Hit Hard...need Hardware

Consumers Being Hit HARD By Fake Banking Spam - Smarthouse

By Kate Castellari | Monday  5/18/2009

Consumers in Australia are being hit every day with hundreds of emails that are suppose to be from the Commonwealth Bank and the Federal Reserve Bank however investigators and the banks say they are all part of a massive global scam to extract money.

Credit card fraud ­ and particularly online transactions ­ accounts for the lion's share of most types of financial fraud, including those involving checks. 


The rate of credit card fraud has grown over the past year from 45 cents per $1000 to
53 cents in 2008, says the Australian Payments Clearing Association (APCA)



According to the APCA, increases in Australia's card fraud are through increases in card-not-present (CNP) fraud and counterfeit (cloned cards) as well as skimming.

In comparison, fraud on checks remains very low, with less than a cent in fraud for every $1000 and only four fraudulent transactions out of every million.

CDN has firsthand experience. This writer nearly became the victim of a failed phishing attempt to defraud her of the contents of her credit card by fraudsters quoting an outdated payment to a bank in a vain attempt to gain her name and password. The bogus bank site was almost the spitting image of the original.

This writer phoned the bank in question and they confirmed it was a fake.  Thanks to that, we got there in time to change the password. 


Continue Reading at Smarthouse.com.au


Editor's Note:  Did he say password?  Did he say fake website?  Why on earth are banks still using passwords? 

Notice I didn't ask "Why are there (cloned) fake websites?"   That's too easy...

"Because there are Passwords!"

The missing piece to the puzzle is HomeATM  (see related articles)

1. Bank Issues Card.   -  Done
2. Bank Issues PIN   -  Done
3. Bank Issues Secure PCI 2.0 PED Login Device...

The writing is on the wall.  The reason "phishers exist" is to try and get pertinent information.  What's more pertinent that a username and password?  So how do we stop them?  We "encrypt" the "pertinent information" so that the data is NEVER in the clear.  That's how.  HomeATM doesn't "lessen" the threat of phishing or cloned bank websites, HomeATM "ELIMINATES" the threat. 

Let's take a look at the recent phishing (last Friday) attacks launched towards Facebook users as an example,  shall we? 

"We're aware of the attackand are already blocking links to these new phishing sites from beingshared on Facebook. We're also cleaning up phony messages and Wallposts and resetting the passwords of affected users," a spokeswomanfrom the site said Friday. Facebook said Friday that it was aware of a recent phishing attack against its users, and believed it was tied to an earlier campaign.

The fake sites were designed to mimic Facebook, and prompt users toenter their username and passwords.


and this....which blew up in their Face...book...

Facebook locks out users with weird names in effort to purge fakes
- The Associated Press

Alicia Istanbul woke up one recent Wednesday to find herself lockedout of the Facebook account she had opened in 2007, after the socialnetworking site suddenly deemed it fake. The stay-at-home mom was cut off not only from her 330 friends,including many she had no other way of contacting, but also from thepages she had set up for the jewelry design business she runs from herAtlanta-area home.  (Editor's Note...that must've made her happy)


Although Istanbul understands why Facebook insists on having realpeople behind real names for every account, she wonders why the onlinehangout didn't simply ask before acting. "They should at least give you a warning, or at least give you thebenefit of the doubt," she said. "I was on it all day. I had built myentire social network around it. That's what Facebook wants you to do."  (Editor's Note:  My bad...she doesn't sound happy!)  Facebook's effort to purge its site of fake accounts, in the processknocking out some real people with unusual names, marks yet anotherchallenge for the five-year-old social network

Editor's Note:  After reading that example (and yes, HomeATM's device would not only authenticate Facebook users but it would empower them with a Real-Time Person to Person Money Transfer Program) but right now I'm talking online banking.  I only use Facebook as an example for online-banking in order to suggest that if you don't want to lose face, customers, or lose customer money, then your Online Banking Platform must engage users with secure 2FA (Two Factor Authentication)  There's only ONE PCI 2.0 Certified PIN Entry Device designed specifically for eCommerce (and online banking) and it happens to also completely eliminate the threat of phishing and cloned web sites. 



 


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