Online payment fraud still dangerously prevalent in Europe

Despite an impressive improvement in POS and ATM card fraud, CNP (Card not present) fraud is a battle that Europe is not winning

Within SEPA (Single Euro Payment Area) there has been a 7.6% fall in card fraud in Europe from 2007-2011, a 24% drop in POS Fraud and a definite decrease in ATM fraud, owing to technical interventions like EMV (a global standard for inter-operation of integrated circuit cards). This trend, however, has not been followed by e-commerce, which is responsible for 56% of total illegitimate card usage.

A Card fraud report has just been released by the European Central Bank, presenting this data and providing some suggestions for the card-not-present industry to help tackle an oh-so stubborn problem for online merchants and banks.

• Put into place several layers of security in case one line of defense fails.
• Make sure that strong customer authentication is demanded in order to protect the payment process from the start.
• Set time limits for customer authentication and limit the number of possible attempts.
• Develop transaction monitoring mechanisms that detect, prevent and block illegitimate transactions.
• Give customers the education they need to engage in safer internet payment.

The report also indicates that the use of card screening mechanisms has improved CNP fraud, for example in the UK where a one-third reduction is evident since 2007.