Online Observer

Fighting Online Fraud and Scam

Authorities are coming up with different ways on how to fight the vast online fraud and scam. In UK, officials has come up with an alternative to the UK's identity card scheme : Give everyone a free iPod installed with a digital certificate. UK officials claimed the integrated services digital network (ISDN) standard is an inherently more secure medium than ADSL, but is too expensive to meet the needs of most consumers or small businesses but a cell phone or an iPod equipped with a digital signature or digital certificate that consumers or business users plugged into their home machines would be an efficient way to solve online authentication and identity management problems.

Although I'm still doubting the effectiveness of the suggestion, I just hope that this will work out.

One of the most effective methods of combating Internet fraud is to eyeball (or manually assess) every transaction for obvious abnormalities, such as unusually high order volumes within one transaction. This is a more cost-effective and practical solution for retailers who do not experience volumes online, and is an effective first check-point for any obvious fraudulent transactions.

It is important for retailers to take a vigilant stance with regards to online orders and be able to detect and prevent fraudulent transactions as early in the checkout process as possible. One solution to this problem is to dictate that the first order made online must be delivered to the cardholder address. Operating in this way would make it increasingly difficult for any potential fraudster using a stolen card to place an order through a website, even if they have the billing address, as the item could not be delivered to a different address.

I am also happy to know that several arrests have been made the past days on persons involved in online fraud and credit card scams.

In New Delhi, India, police claimed to have busted a gang involved in online fraud through hacking of accounts and stealing client User IDs and their password and arrested a person. Prime accused Paramdeep Singh (30), a resident of Amritsar and a dealer of foreign exchange and commodities, was arrested on the complaint of the Director of a firm and member of Multi-Commodity Exchange of India Ltd whose user ID and password was used to transact fraudulent deals leading to a loss of Rs 15 lakh, according to the police.

India's police also claimed to have busted an inter-state racket of credit card fraud with the arrest of two African nationals.

Calra Moore, 48, of Johannesburg and Allen Taylor, 27, of Nigeria were arrested on charges of impersonation, fraud, cheating and criminal conspiracy. The police have also recovered two forged credit cards (Visa no. 4787690012532031 and Standard Bank of South Africa no. 5221261090037763) from their possession.

A Phoenix man was also arrested after allegedly using a credit card account belonging to Green Bay Packers star quarterback Brett Favre more than 40 times. The Arizona Attorney General's Office says 35-year-old William Joachim was arrested on four felony charges of theft, fraud schemes, aggravated identity theft and misconduct involving weapons. Two other men were also arrested in the case and booked into the Maricopa County jail on forgery charges.

I hope authorities will work double time in arresting online crooks and preventing online fraud and scam.

And to everyone, always remember: "When it's too good to be true, it's a scam".

posted by e-journalist @ 7:25 PM