Posted on Mon, May 09, 2011 @ 04:00 AM
Ogone customers can enable real time automatic fraud checks against the histories of hundreds of merchants in the Ethoca network. Access is free forever for Ogone customers who activate by 29 July 2011. The activation page is available in these languages: |
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Ogone Brings Ethoca's Advanced Anti-Fraud Screening to 28,000 Ogone Customers in Europe and Beyond; Raises Standards for PSP Payment Fraud Prevention
Leading European Payment Service Provider Sees Providing Access to Ethoca’s Global Database of Payment Histories As Essential to Card Not Present Fraud Prevention
9 May 2011 -- Ethoca, the leader in collaborative fraud management for ecommerce, has signed a relationship with global payment service provider Ogone to enhance fraud screening for Ogone’s customers.
Ogone supports over 28,000 customers across 45 countries. Ogone customers may activate the enhanced fraud screening for free through July 29th, 2011 by visiting http://www.ethoca.com/ogone.
The new relationship means Ogone customers can enable real-time automatic fraud checks against the histories of hundreds of merchants in the Ethoca network. After activating the service, customers’ transactions will be automatically checked for chargeback histories, velocity, inconsistencies, and other negative patterns. Customers can see the results instantly because checks are in real-time.
The fraud-risk information provided by Ethoca through Ogone is available only to those who opt in to the Ethoca network. Members of the Ethoca network are connected to a pool of member-provided transaction data, securely maintained and managed to protect the privacy of both customers and members.
“Access to the Ethoca network to prevent fraud is the next step in fraud management, and Ethoca has the technology and compliance programs in place to help both local and global businesses reap its benefit,” said Ogone’s CEO Peter De Caluwe.
“The fraud information Ogone customers will get isn’t available any other way,” said Ethoca CEO Andre Edelbrock. “For the typical user, it means improved fraud screening and fewer false positives. By integrating access to Ethoca’s network as part of their fraud management solution, Ogone is helping to drive down fraud rates and increasing the profitability of their clients and partners.”
About Ethoca
Ethoca’s mission is to eliminate ecommerce fraud by helping merchants and card issuers in the payment chain check against each other’s histories and pass fraud alert information between all members of its network. Ethoca provides collaboration-based fraud detection services to card-not-present merchants (those receiving orders by website, fax, catalog, or telephone). Ethoca works with payment processors and card acquirers to provide merchants access to its services. Today over 150 top brands are using an Ethoca service, including 17 of the top 20 ecommerce retailers. To get started, contact Steve Frook at +353.1.659.9484 or +1.866.215.2883, or download free payment fraud prevention resources at ethoca.com.
Follow Ethoca at @ethocanews
About Ogone
Ogone is one of the leading European Payment Service Providers with thousands of customers across 45 countries. The company delivers manual to fully integrated solutions for managing electronic payments in several domains including e-commerce, ticketing, call centers, airlines and travel in both business to consumer or business to business (purchasing cards) environments. The service offering of Ogone is probably one of the most comprehensive available today.
Ogone is connected through certified links to more than 200 different banks/acquirers that enable handling of over 40 international and local payment methods like Visa, MasterCard, American Express, Diners Club and JCB as well as local ones like iDEAL and Machtigingen in The Netherlands, Solo and Maestro UK in United Kingdom and ELV and giropay in Germany. Always on the edge of technology, Ogone was one of the first Payment Service Providers to offer Verified By Visa and MasterCard SecureCode; with these protocols, Visa and MasterCard provide guaranteed payments.
Leading organisations have decided to trust Ogone to handle their payments such as IKEA, Nespresso, DHL International, Thalys International, Home Shopping Service, ThomasCook, SeaFrance, Lyreco, Institut National de l’Audiovisuel, Lavazza and Hilton.
Ogone has offices in Austria, The Netherlands, Belgium, France, Switzerland, Germany and the United Kingdom. Its majority shareholder is the investment fund Summit Partners. For commercial information about Ogone’s products and services, contact its Sales department by phone, via information request form, or by email to sales@ogone.com.
Sales phone numbers:
- Ogone Belgium & International: +32 (0)2 286 96 11
- Ogone Netherlands: +31 (0) 297 255 411
- Ogone France: +33 (0)1 70 70 09 03
- Ogone Germany: +49 (0)221 455 30 180
- Ogone Austria: +43 (0)1 890 63 85 00
- Ogone Switzerland: +41 (0)44 277 55 00
- Ogone United Kingdom: +44 (0)203 147 4966
Learn more at http://www.ogone.com
Follow Ogone on http://twitter.com/ogone
Posted on Wed, Apr 27, 2011 @ 04:00 AM
Cross-border data sharing provides merchants with access to powerful tools that can quickly spot fraudstersnot only across national lines but across unrelated industries that rarely share data for other purposes.
Stay up to date: follow Ethoca at @ethocanews
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All merchants should embrace data sharing to prevent criminal activity; cooperation is routine in financial services and other industries and is proven to reduce fraud rates, says guide author
(PRWEB) April 27, 2011 -- Ethoca, the leader in data sharing for ecommerce fraud prevention, and Mike Bradford, a noted expert in international regulatory and consumer affairs, released a comprehensive guide titled “The Challenges and Opportunities of Sharing Data to Prevent Fraud.”
The guide details precedents and best-practices for sharing ecommerce data as part of anti-fraud efforts. In the guide, Bradford, the Director of consultancy Regulatory Strategies, lays out examples of other consumer industries sharing data to reduce fraud and paints a picture of global regulatory standards for data sharing practices. Those interested can request the guide at ethoca.com/datasharing.
Cross-border data sharing infrastructures provide merchants with access to powerful tools that can quickly spot fraudsters not only across national lines but across unrelated industries that rarely share data for other purposes.
Time for ecommerce to catch up to other industries on data sharing
“Merchants should fully embrace data sharing to prevent criminal activity,” says Bradford. “The fiercely competitive financial services market has embraced data sharing -- in some countries for decades -- on the basis that risk avoidance and fraud prevention should not be competitive issues.”
Over 100 of the world’s top online merchants already safely and legally share transaction data to stop fraud, leveraging Ethoca’s Issuer Confirmed Fraud Alerts™ (Fraud Alerts™) offering. Fraud Alerts™ is a PCI Certified service that provides both fraud alerts and a secure sharing architecture to enable multi-party collaborative fraud prevention activities.
“There is a strong precedent for data sharing in the majority of countries by other transaction-rich financial industries, such as banking,” says Julie Fergerson, VP of Emerging Technologies at Ethoca. “Now it is time for ecommerce to catch up and for merchants to work together to attack and reduce fraud.”
Strong precedent in EU, US, Canada
Data sharing to reduce fraud is a well-established practice across the United States, Canada and the European Union. The rules for operating sharing organizations, or “bureaus”, are defined on a country-by-country basis and the practice of data sharing is considered essential in anti-fraud efforts.
It is possible, as well, to operate one or more bureaus that function as global clearinghouses and alert agencies for numerous merchant participants as long as these bureaus follow clear practices that comply with all the data sharing legislation of all the member countries. The guide outlines several examples of data sharing for fraud prevention.
How ecommerce data sharing works
Here is how it works:
- A member joins an anti-fraud organization and agrees to terms of service that include confidentiality and reciprocity. Each member of the organization contributes confirmed fraud incidents to the anti-fraud organization, or bureau.
- Intelligent matching systems inside the bureau apply algorithms to spot evidence of ongoing fraud.
- Members receive fraud alerts, via email, comprised of a daily list of confirmed fraud incidents. Members may also receive real-time fraud activity alerts. The members of the bureau are anonymized so no one can connect a particular fraud incident to a particular member.
Such sharing is increasingly important in an era of frequent online payments fraud and international collaboration among fraudsters to take advantage of merchants.
A highest common denominator approach
In the guide, Bradford advocates a set of best practices for sharing of ecommerce transaction data to best ensure full compliance with local and national regulations and policies for personal privacy and consumer protection.
Some of those key practices include:
- Choosing a reputable fraud bureau partner
- Meeting or exceeding consent requirements
- Guaranteeing compliant data sharing
- An appropriate policy for manual versus automated transaction approval decision-making, and
- Putting in place the correct protocols for cross-border data sharing
Ethoca’s Fraud Alerts™, FraudStop™, and other services meet or exceed all of the compliance requirements. Both services are free for now.
“Fraudsters figure out how to circumvent conventional fraud prevention tools as they reach mass adoption,” writes Ethoca Chief Governance Officer Darryl Green in the guide’s preface, “but an approach built on data sharing performs better over time, due to a network effect. This network effect is a powerful anti-fraud weapon for both merchants and consumers – and, as Mike discusses here, it has been at work for years in other industries. Ethoca just brought it to ecommerce.”
About Ethoca
Ethoca’s mission is to eliminate ecommerce fraud by helping organizations in the payment chain check against each other’s histories. Ethoca provides fraud detection services to card-not-present merchants (those receiving orders by website, fax, catalog, or telephone). It partners with payment processors and card acquirers to bring merchants its ecommerce fraud management services. Today over 150 top brands are using an Ethoca service, including 17 of the top 20 ecommerce retailers. Get free product sheets, guides, video, articles, and other payment fraud prevention resources at ethoca.com/resources
Follow Ethoca at @ethocanews
About Regulatory Strategies
Regulatory Strategies was founded in 2009 on a core “can do” philosophy, specifically to provide UK and international clients with highly practical and commercially focused consultancy around regulatory and consumer affairs, compliance and data protection to balance and minimise risk while at the same time driving bottom-line competitive advantage and market differential. Learn more at regulatorystrategies.co.uk/index.html.
Posted on Fri, Mar 25, 2011 @ 05:00 AM
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“Ethoca’s PCI Certified technology enables secure collaboration to develop confirmed fraud intelligence.”
- Ken Blotteaux, VP Technology and Tactical Operations, National Cyber-Forensics & Training Alliance
Stay up to date: follow Ethoca at @ethocanews
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(PRWEB) March 25, 2011 -- Ethoca, the leader in collaborative ecommerce fraud management, today unveiled FraudStop™, a new PCI Certified service that not only helps online merchants reduce fraud losses but also enables them to contribute to research analysis and preventing future frauds.
With FraudStop™, member organizations can compare confirmed fraud information to increase fraud detection.
How it works
An organization visits ethoca.com to start their application; after approval from Ethoca and agreeing to the FraudStop™ terms of service, the organization becomes a member.
Each member contributes confirmed fraud incidents via a web interface, uploading batch files, or using an application programming interface (API) to connect with Ethoca’s PCI Certified system.
Members receive a daily list of confirmed fraud incidents. Members are annonymized whereby member identification is not part of a FraudStop™ file, so no one can connect a particular fraud incident to a particular member.
Members receive FraudStop™ Reports with information on trends and results.
The problem
Last year the New York Times reported on a case in which more than $10 million US was stolen by placing a single charge for less than $10 on over one million different credit and debit cards.
“It’s typical for fraudsters to hit each merchant in small amounts, and each hit is not big enough for the merchant to make a case,” said Julie Fergerson, Ethoca’s vice president of Emerging Technologies and Co-Founder of the Merchant Risk Council.
“FraudStop™ will help compile the data needed to track these guys down. Linking $500 cases can build a $50,000 case globally.”
“Informal and unstructured data sharing is obsolete,” said Ken Blotteaux, vice president of Technology and Tactical Operations for the NCFTA, which has partnerships with U.S. and international law enforcement and regulatory agencies as well as private sector organizations. “Ethoca’s PCI Certified technology enables secure collaboration to develop confirmed fraud intelligence.”
SC Magazine awarded NCFTA its “2010 Editor’s Choice Award for Top Non-Profit” last year, in part because “the NCFTA has partnered with online retailers, financial institutions …to mitigate and neutralize frauds specifically targeted at e-commerce.”
Secure environment
Ethoca systems are PCI Certified. FraudStop™ addresses the concerns and risks associated with informal data sharing by providing a secure PCI Certified environment, with a process that ensures compliance. Additionally, the architecture aids merchants in being able to manage and comply with global regulatory and legal data privacy issues.
Pricing
“For now, the service is free,” said Fergerson. “At a later time Ethoca may charge for the distribution of the collected information. But even then, merchants will always be able to upload for free their own confirmed fraud cases to help law enforcement build a case against the fraudsters.”
“To date, many merchants have informally shared this type of information, trying ad-hoc to supply information to build cases for law enforcement with some success,” said Fergerson. “If the industry were better organized, it could make a bigger dent in ecommerce crime – meaning merchants stop more fraud losses, law enforcement catches more bad guys, and consumers have a safer shopping environment.”
About Ethoca
Ethoca’s mission is to eliminate ecommerce fraud by helping organizations in the payment chain check against each other’s histories. Ethoca provides fraud detection services to card-not-present merchants (those receiving orders by website, fax, catalog, or telephone). It partners with payment processors, fraud prevention vendors, identity solution providers, card acquirers, card issuers, resellers and industry organizations. Today over 150 top brands are using an Ethoca service, including 17 of the top 20 ecommerce retailers.
To get started, contact Steve Frook at +1.866.215.2883 or +353.1.659.9484, or to learn more and download free payment fraud prevention resources, visit ethoca.com.
Follow Ethoca at @ethocanews
About National Cyber-Forensics & Training Alliance
Since 1997, the non-profit corporation National Cyber-Forensics & Training Alliance has leveraged subject matter experts in the public and private sectors to identify, mitigate, and neutralize cybercrime threats. NCFTA encourages experts in academia, industry, and domestic and international law enforcement and civil authorities to trust one another and communicate in real time in order to develop the intelligence needed to address cybercrime.
Its approach works: NCFTA has contributed to successful prosecutions of hundreds of cyber criminals worldwide since 1997. In 2007, the Government Accountability Office acknowledged the NCFTA as the type of public and private sector partnership necessary to address complex cyber crimes. Similarly, President Obama’s 60-day comprehensive “clean-slate” review assessing U.S. cyber-security cited the NCFTA as an “effective model” that “has a clearly defined institutional mission, well-defined roles and responsibilities for participants, and a clear value proposition that creates incentives for members to participate” while “establishing and maintaining an environment of trust among the members.”
Learn more at ncfta.net or call 412.802.8000.
Posted on Thu, Feb 03, 2011 @ 05:00 AM
Ethoca's Issuer Confirmed Fraud Alerts™ service, a finalist for the 2011 MRC METAward, enables issuers and merchants to get in synch -- and stop goods and services from reaching known fraudsters.
Stay up to date: follow Ethoca at @ethocanews |
Ethoca’s Issuer Confirmed Fraud Alerts™ service is in the final three for MRC METAward recognizing innovation in payment fraud prevention
(PRWEB) February 3, 2011 -- Ethoca, the leader in collaborative ecommerce fraud management, has been named one of the top three finalists for the 2011 Merchant Risk Council Emerging Technology Awards (METAwards). Ethoca was nominated for Issuer Confirmed Fraud Alerts™, a service that helps card not present merchants (businesses that accept orders via the web, catalog, phone, or fax) stop preventable fraud losses and chargeback fees.
With Issuer Confirmed Fraud Alerts™, card issuers notify Ethoca when a credit card has been canceled due to confirmed fraudulent use. Ethoca distributes real-time alerts to the affected merchants, either individually via email or by populating an alert management queue in Ethoca’s secure portal.
“Issuers know up to four to six weeks earlier than the merchant when a card has been compromised and canceled. If affected merchants can get this information in real time, they can stop the vast majority of undetected fraud and prevent chargebacks,” said Ethoca’s president and co-founder Keegan Johnson. “Ethoca made it possible by building a fast, secure hub for issuer-merchant communications. Finally, merchants and issuers can work together to stop fraud, rather than shifting the liability of fraud from one party to the next. It is an honor for the MRC to recognize Ethoca for developing this innovative, effective approach to reducing CNP fraud.”
Forty percent of the alerts Ethoca sends identify fraud that merchants had missed. Merchants receiving the real time alerts have cut their related CNP fraud costs by up to a third – and stand to cut them further as more card issuers participate. The savings come from stopping orders placed by fraudsters before fraudsters receive goods or services; saving on staff time needed to handle chargebacks; and cutting down on the fees paid for submitting chargebacks.
MRC’s METAwards recognize the most innovative payment, fraud and security tools in electronic commerce as judged by a panel of online and multi-channel merchants. MRC said in a Tuesday press release that the METAward finalists are "at the forefront in helping online and multi-channel merchants mitigate online payment risks and advance the MRC’s vision of making electronic commerce more efficient, safe and profitable.”
The METAward merchant judging panel is comprised of representatives from leading brands including: BestBuy.com, eBay, Go Daddy, HP, Microsoft, NCsoft, Tiffany & Co., T-Mobile, Urban Outfitters, among others. The 2011 METAward winner will be announced at the MRC’s Annual e-Commerce Payments and Risk Conference in Las Vegas on March 23, 2011, and will be hosted by Tom Donlea, Executive Director of the MRC and John Stewart, Editor of Digital Transactions Magazine.
About Ethoca
Ethoca’s mission is to eliminate ecommerce fraud through collaboration. Ethoca provides fraud detection services to card not present merchants (those receiving orders by website, fax, catalog, or telephone) and to card issuers. It partners with payment processors, fraud prevention vendors, identity solution providers, card acquirers, card issuers, resellers and industry organizations.
Ethoca offers free payment fraud prevention resources at its website, including:
- Fraud Attacks Cross Industries, the Ethoca study involving merchants representing 61% of the top 500 Internet merchants as measured by revenue and as defined by Internet Retailer for 2009. Data from the Issuer Confirmed Fraud Alerts™ service provided the basis for this study published late January 2011.
- Fraud Intel subscription - from time to time Ethoca executives publish articles at Fraud Intel on CNP fraud challenges, best practices, news, and trends.
- Follow Ethoca at @ethocanews
Ethoca™ is a registered trademark of Ethoca Limited.
Posted on Fri, Jan 28, 2011 @ 05:00 AM
In 10% of 25k online payments fraud cases studied, 1 stolen credit card was used for fraud at more than 1 internet retailer. Download the study |
Ecommerce merchants detect and prevent more online credit card fraud if they share data in real time, say study co-authors
Ethoca, the leader in collaborative ecommerce fraud management, has released findings from a study of 25,188 confirmed fraud cases involving 95 top ecommerce retailers over a five-month period. The study, Fraud Attacks Across Industries, reveals the frequency with which fraudsters strike multiple merchants, the speed at which fraudsters change attack paths, and surprising information on which industries are key targets. The report is available for download at ethoca.com/crosstalk.
Ethoca engaged in a program with credit card issuers and participating online merchants. The 95 merchants studied in this program represent 61% of the top 500 Internet merchants as measured by revenue and as defined by Internet Retailer for 2009. All the merchants were enrolled in Ethoca’s Issuer Confirmed Fraud Alerts™ service from June 2010 through October 2010.
Study highlights
- In 10% of the cases studied, a single credit card was identified used to commit fraud at more than one merchant.
- When a fraudster commits fraud at multiple ecommerce merchants, the victimized merchants do not typically all belong to the same industry or vertical.
- In 86% of the cases studied, the fraudster stopped using the same cards during the first 24 hours.
“One finding is that a merchant’s industry is not an important factor in data sharing,” said Julie Fergerson, Vice President of Emerging Technologies at Ethoca and co-author of the report. “Fraudsters usually do not stick to one industry during an attack. In fact, almost three quarters of the time the fraud attack hit merchants in multiple categories.
"The general belief among online merchants and fraud fighters had been that sharing among industry peers mattered a great deal. The study shows that’s wrong. It is more effective to share data outside an industry.”
“Our research shows not only the importance of sharing data, but how quickly it needs to be shared in order to be effective, and what kind of difference it makes to share it across industries,” said Dr. Daniele Micci-Barreca, co-author of the report. Dr. Micci-Barreca, a principal at Elite Analytics, is a leading expert in fraud detection applications of pattern recognition and data mining technologies.
“Merchants who share data should do so in real-time or near real-time. With speed, digital goods and services can be shut down before the thief is able to get or use them.”
Using Ethoca’s fraud detection services, online merchants cut card not present fraud losses, cut manual reviews, and prevent lost sales to good customers. Over 125 top brands are using an Ethoca fraud management service, including 17 of the top 20 ecommerce retailers as ranked by Internet Retailer magazine. Issuer Confirmed Fraud Alerts™ is ideal for an online merchant wanting to prevent chargebacks and their associated costs. Ethoca360 Signals™ enhances existing card not present fraud screening with payment experiences from other merchants. Ethoca360SE™ is ideal for the online merchant looking for a decision on which CNP transactions to accept, reject, or review. And Ethoca360 eCheck™ is ideal for merchants accepting ACH transactions who want to prevent returned transactions.
Using Ethoca's services, banks and card issuers can easily alert merchants whenever they have confirmed that a credit card has been used fraudulently. That way, merchants can cancel the orders and prevent fraudsters from profiting from their crimes and issuers reduce 3DSecure losses, reduce fraud management costs, and lower chargeback submission costs.
Ethoca partners with top companies worldwide including payment processors, fraud prevention vendors, identity solution providers, card acquirers, resellers and industry organizations. Ethoca’s offerings complement their existing fraud systems, adding unique data they can't get any other way to sharpen fraud screening accuracy.
About Elite Analytics
Elite Analytics LLC is a consulting firm focused on data mining, business intelligence, and strategic consulting services that enable organizations to use their data to make better business decisions. More at eliteanalytics.com
About Ethoca
Ethoca’s mission is to eliminate ecommerce fraud. Ethoca provides fraud management services to card-not-present merchants (those receiving orders by website, catalog, or telephone) and helps card issuers reduce 3Dsecure losses, reduce fraud management costs, and lower chargeback submission costs. Ethoca partners with payment processors, fraud prevention vendors, identity solution providers, card acquirers, resellers and industry organizations. More at ethoca.com
Posted on Tue, Nov 16, 2010 @ 05:00 AM
As sales volumes start their rapid Christmas ascent in November leading up to Black Friday and Cyber Monday, the fraudsters are also getting ready with a whole new set of threats to watch out for. Based on the top fraud trends observed this year, Ethoca offers its Christmas 2010 Top 6 Anti-Fraud Measures for Online Merchants list
(PRWEB) November 16, 2010 -- Ecommerce fraud prevention company Ethoca has published Christmas 2010 Top 6 Anti-Fraud Measures for Online Merchants and begun a six-part series of anti-fraud tips on the company blog.
Written by Julie Fergerson, Vice President of Emerging Technologies at Ethoca, the tips come just in time for the busiest retail season of the year. Fergerson was a co-founder of Merchant Risk Council and is a well-known expert in the field of fighting online fraud.
The first tip in the series warns of "friendly fraud" committed by the cardholder or someone known to them. It is rising, due to the continuing bleak economy and high unemployment rates.
Fergerson goes on to detail the types of merchants most at risk for friendly fraud, and how best to fight it.
Subsequent tips warn merchants to:
- Be careful not to flag repeat customers as suspicious when they don't have a "digital fingerprint"
- Monitor cancelled orders triggered by fraud screens, and resulting call center complaints
- Test fraud rules to make sure they can catch coupon fraud
- Tune fraud screening processes to handle very high AVS mismatch rates resulting from gift cards
- Ensure that fraud rules are multi-channel
“Ecommerce payment fraud continues to be a prime target for cybergangs in 2010,” said Ethoca VP, Emerging Technologies, Julie Fergerson, “and as sales volumes start their rapid Christmas ascent in November leading up to Black Friday and Cyber Monday, the fraudsters are also getting ready with a whole new set of threats to watch out for.”
Merchants who subscribe to the company's Fraud Intel Blog will get each tip as soon as it becomes available. Merchants also can download a PDF with all six tips at ethoca.com/anti-fraud-tips.
About Ethoca
Using Ethoca’s anti-fraud technology, ecommerce (card-not-present) merchants cut fraud losses, reduce false positives (wrongly rejected orders), and reduce fraud management costs. Learn more at Ethoca.com
Ethoca™ is a registered trademark of Ethoca Limited.
Posted on Thu, Sep 09, 2010 @ 12:01 AM
Industry pioneer and respected thought leader in online payments fraud prevention joins Ethoca executive team to further adoption of leading edge anti-fraud collaboration platform; will work closely with customers to identify anti-fraud use cases and new product requirements for the Ethoca-powered collaborative network
(PRWEB) September 9, 2010 -- Ethoca, the leader in collaboration-based anti-fraud technologies for e-commerce, today announced the appointment of Julie Fergerson as Vice President of Emerging Technologies. Fergerson, a former VP of Emerging Technologies at Debix and ClearCommerce where she was also co-founder, has nearly 20 years of experience in the online payments and fraud management industry, holds and has patents-pending methods for secure transaction order management processing and preventing fraudulent electronic transactions, and is acclaimed as one of the true pioneers and thought leaders in the industry.
In Ms. Fergerson’s new role with Ethoca, she will apply her deep and broad understanding of how online payments fraud happens to work closely with customers to develop use cases and new product requirements for Ethoca’s advanced collaborative network which enables merchants and other industry stakeholders to work together as effectively and efficiently as the fraudsters already do. A key focus will be driving adoption of Ethoca’s collaborative platform through identification and commercialization of the many ways it enables value creation for customers.
“When I left the e-commerce industry, the one thing that I felt was left unfinished was formalizing a way for merchants to collaborate with each other and with card issuers to get organized like criminals have been doing for years,” said Ms. Fergerson. “If I hadn’t found and joined Ethoca, this is an idea I would have developed myself.”
“Ethoca has done a fantastic job of addressing the key barriers to effective collaboration through their highly secure, real-time platform that protects privacy, ensures data integrity and has achieved critical-mass participation levels. The key challenge now is moving it forward to establish broad industry stakeholder participation, making it a truly global and universal anti-fraud communication hub and repository. I’m very excited to have the opportunity to play a critical role in making that happen,” she continued, “as collaboration is the only fraud prevention method that does not degrade and become less effective over time.”
“We are thrilled to welcome someone of Julie’s stature and abilities to our team,” said Andre Edelbrock, CEO and co-founder of Ethoca. “Her expertise, deep industry relationships and experience will be of tremendous value in spreading the ideas behind collaboration and why it works and how to leverage it to reduce the Total Cost of Fraud (TCoF). We are entering a rapid growth phase for Ethoca, and Julie will be instrumental in helping us scale to that challenge and leading our development of collaborative use cases so that the platform becomes a de facto global standard for e-commerce merchants and industry stakeholders, regardless of which payment processor, fraud analytics tools, acquiring bank, or shopping cart / e-commerce platform they use.”
After a period when it appeared that internet crime might have been contained and no longer growing, the past 18 months have seen an explosion in online fraud as criminals have become more organized into international gangs and more “professional” and business-like in their operations. Fraudsters have figured out payment and fraud systems, and how to look more like legitimate buyers – sometimes even more legitimate looking than real customers – and move extremely quickly and effectively to monetize stolen data. This has amplified the need for a coordinated, collaborative effort by businesses to fight back.
Ms. Fergerson is considered to be one of the industry’s foremost experts on internet payments fraud. In addition to her corporate development work, Julie is a co-founder and board member emeritus of the Merchant Risk Council (MRC), the leading trade association for managing payments, preventing online fraud and promoting secure e-Commerce. She also serves as a board member of the Identity Theft Resource Center, where she created and led the Victim Assistance Program, a joint effort between the National Cyber Forensics Training Alliance, the ITRC and Debix to provide notification and assistance to consumers whose identities have been compromised and found on crime servers by law enforcement.
Ms. Fergerson is a frequent speaker at industry trade events, including International Association of Privacy Professionals, National Retail Federation, Electronic Transaction Association, Economic Crime Summit, Mastercard University, Merchant Risk Council, NACHA, NRF Loss Prevention and the National White Collar Crime Conference. Publications include regular contributions to LooksTooGoodToBeTrue.com (a consumer site run by the FBI and Postal Inspectors), various industry journals, and contributions to three books and two government publications.
About Ethoca
Ethoca’s technology enables broad, automated industry collaboration through a highly secure communications hub and repository used by merchants, payment processors, fraud solution vendors, issuers and banks. Its rapidly growing database contains 600 million merchant and payment provider contributed records containing rich transaction information and outcomes across various payment types. Data can be linked by any attribute, offering a 360-degree view of behavioral patterns online that help identify both good and bad orders and customers.
Ethoca™ is a registered trademark of Ethoca Limited.
More information about Ethoca
Posted on Wed, Jul 14, 2010 @ 09:22 AM
New "Ethoca Guide for Partners" shows the near and long term benefits – including how collaborative fraud prevention is helping to make online shopping an experience the public can trust
(PRWEB) July 9, 2010 -- Some of the biggest names in payment processing, fraud prevention, card issuing and identity management are partnering with Ethoca to help lower merchants’ total cost of fraud and make online shopping an experience the public can trust. The new Ethoca Guide for Partners, shows why.
Ethoca Guide for Partners is a free instant download available at ethoca.com/partnering.
Ethoca360 Signals, ideally suited as a partner solution, evaluates order transaction data elements and finds links, matches and behavioral patterns in the Global Fraud Alliance (GFA) repository that indicate either risk (negative signals) or probable safety (positive signals). These raw data signals complement any fraud prevention services a partner has in place today, because they leverage the pooled GFA member payment experiences to enhance fraud scoring accuracy, reduce false positives, improve manual review productivity and enable better decision making, by providing information about potential fraud risk that can't be obtained any other way.
Ethoca360 Signals can be completely contained and integrated into partner solutions. Other components of the Ethoca360 suite of card-not-present fraud solutions, including Ethoca360 SE/Plus and eCheck should also be considered by prospective partners who lack their own primary fraud prevention services platform.
Partners already on board include leading payment service providers like Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) and leading fraud solution providers like 41st Parameter, which is supporting Ethoca’s Ethoca360 Negative Signals service. Another type of partner is GB Group, one of the UK’s leading Identity Management companies. And IMRG, the UK’s e-retail member community, has chosen to offer accredited retailers access to free Negative Signals as part of their ISIS (Internet Shopping is Safe) program.
How partners benefit from collaborative fraud management
“Tapping into a rapidly growing global network of online merchants representing over 500M transaction experiences means higher accuracy of fraud screening and fewer false positives for your merchant clients,” said Ethoca co-founder and CEO Andre Edelbrock. “That's because fraud is agnostic, and more data, from different merchants, industries and geographies improves the ability to detect and predict fraud risk. You also benefit from secure centralized data pooling across PSPs, issuers, fraud and identity solution providers and merchants. Our current partners grasped the value proposition, and now offer their clients access to a premier global anti-fraud service.”
“Ultimately, collaborative fraud prevention helps make online shopping an experience the public can trust, which increases the revenue and profit potential for everyone,” he adds. "The IMRG clearly recognizes this in their selection of Ethoca as a key supplier for ISIS accredited merchants. Consumers cite fear of online fraud as a key barrier to shopping online, and that's a problem that we can solve together.”
Improving CNP fraud detection
Online retailers receive credit card orders when the customer is not present – through their website, by fax, by catalog, or by telephone -- and their efforts to fight fraud can quickly reach a point of diminishing returns.
The Global Fraud Alliance network, powered by Ethoca, enables broad, automated industry collaboration by merchants, payment processors, fraud solution vendors, PSPs and issuing banks. They pool their transaction data into a global repository managed by an independent third party, in full compliance with PCI DSS security standards and the strictest privacy laws and regulations.
When a company partners with Ethoca, data in the GFA repository is one of the factors contributing to end clients’ risk scores. So he or she knows whether a transaction is linked to confirmed fraud or other high risk indicators. By using this data to screen transactions, merchants cut down on:
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Money lost to fraudulent transactions
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Cost of managing the anti-fraud effort
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Cost of lost business when legitimate customers are refused, or asked to wait or prove their identity
That means:
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Customers have a more positive shopping experience
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Fewer rejected good orders (increased revenue)
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Fewer falsely accepted bad orders (decreased fraud losses)
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Lower costs to manage fraud
Screen shots, FAQs, and more in free Guide
The Ethoca Guide for Partners answers questions prospective partners often ask, including:
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How do I get a Signal?
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What do I do with a Signal?
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How is privacy and security of my clients’ data protected?
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Who does Ethoca want as a partner?
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What do I get?
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What are my obligations as an Ethoca partner?
The Guide includes screen shots and tells how partners can get started without investing in integration.
Download the Ethoca Guide for Partners now >>
About Ethoca
Ethoca360 fraud detection services leverage Global Fraud Alliance member data, the world's largest private database of high quality e-commerce transaction data. With Ethoca360 Signals this pooled data resource can be used by merchants and services providers as an enhancement to current anti-fraud measures.
About the Global Fraud Alliance
The Global Fraud Alliance, powered by Ethoca, enables broad, automated industry collaboration by merchants, payment processors, fraud solution vendors, issuers and banks. Its rapidly growing database contains 600 million merchant and payment provider contributed records containing rich transaction information and outcomes across various payment types. Data can be linked by any attribute, offering a 360 degree view of behavioral patterns online that help identify both good and bad orders and customers.
Posted on Thu, Jul 01, 2010 @ 06:00 AM
(PRWEB) July 1, 2010 -- Ethoca Limited, provider of Ethoca360 fraud detection services and the unique collaboration engine that powers the Global Fraud Alliance, has initiated QuickStart, a simple way for merchants to quickly start using Ethoca360's Signals service with reduced development effort.
Ethoca360 Signals evaluates ecommerce transaction risk factors that indicate potential for fraud and displays the results as a set of intuitively color-coded 'Signals'.
Signals are created by breaking down a transaction or account application into raw data elements to compare them against a global repository of payment experiences contributed by members of the Global Fraud Alliance.
When matches are found among the more than 500 million records in the GFA database, rules are triggered that create red, yellow or green signals which indicate high risk (probable fraud), medium risk (investigate further), or very low risk (accept order).
QuickStart offers a faster, more convenient way for merchants to connect to Ethoca360 Signals in real time, bypassing the development work necessary to implement Ethoca's direct API.
There are two key pieces to QuickStart: Signal Request, and Signal Response.
Instead of the merchant subscribing to Ethoca's API, Ethoca subscribes to the APIs already used by the merchant to send data to their payment or fraud service provider. Ethoca evaluates whatever elements are contained in this request and generates Signals based on the matches it finds in the GFA database.
Ethoca passes the Signals back to the merchant in the form of a push-based email and/or portal-based alerts. It requires no changes or addition to the merchant's existing tools.
Although in the longer term, merchants may desire to connect to Ethoca's API to pass and receive more information and benefit from the full range of Signals available, QuickStart eliminates the wait time to schedule IT development resources, and enables access to the benefits of Ethoca's real-time service in days, rather than weeks or months, at no additional cost to the merchant.
QuickStart is also available for use by payment and fraud service providers.
QuickStart is available for either the full Ethoca360 Signals product, or the free version, Ethoca360 Negative Signals, which does not match against the positive data.
Ethoca360 Signals is designed to be an additive service, compatible with all other fraud tools and processes in use, enabling improved productivity and accuracy of fraud decisioning no matter how you do fraud-screening today. QuickStart speeds implementation, eliminating most of the effort and cost to get started right away by requiring virtually no changes to existing systems or processes.
About Ethoca
With offices in Dublin, Toronto, and New York, Ethoca provides anti-fraud services to businesses taking orders by credit card, eCheck and other forms of payments online, by fax, through catalogs and by telephone. Ethoca pioneered and mastered the concept of collaborative fraud management to fight online payment fraud. Learn more at ethoca.com.
Posted on Mon, May 17, 2010 @ 05:22 PM
Designed to maximize sales and minimize fraud, Ethoca’s eCheck Fraud Solution reduces the risk usually associated with accepting direct electronic payment from checking accounts
(PRWEB) May 17, 2010 -- Ethoca Limited, provider of Ethoca360 fraud detection services and the unique collaboration engine that powers the Global Fraud Alliance, has released Ethoca360 eCheck Fraud Solution, a service online retailers use to safely accept direct electronic payments from customers’ checking accounts while preventing Check21 and ACH fraud. Merchants can download a free eCheck Fraud Solution product sheet at http://www.ethoca.com/echeck-product-sheet/
“Impulse services and high-value goods can be very lucrative for online merchants, but you don't want a small number of bad apples to cost you all your profits, and it's very hard to tell the fraudsters from the legitimate customers,” said Andre Edelbrock, Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder of Ethoca. “In businesses where a service is rendered immediately upon payment, for example, you can't get back the cost of the service if the account drawn from was being used fraudulently, doesn’t exist, or has insufficient funds. The same is true if the buyer is the holder of the account, but never intended to honor the purchase agreement, and stops payment or claims they didn't receive the product or service.”
E-commerce websites benefit from offering to accept electronic payments that rely on ACH and Check21. Fearing identity theft or card fraud -- or simply as a means of keeping track of what they spend – many online shoppers prefer to pay by check even if they have a credit card. In fact, according to NACHA-The Electronic Payments Association:
- 89% of US adults have a checking account
- 45% of credit card holders are within 5% of limit
- 80% of non-cash payment is made by check
- 10 million households without credit cards are online
The Global Fraud Alliance network, powered by Ethoca, enables broad, automated industry collaboration by merchants, payment processors, fraud solution vendors, issuers and banks. With eCheck, data in the GFA repository is one of the factors contributing to the merchant’s risk score. So he or she knows whether a transaction is linked to confirmed fraud or other high risk indicators.
Many factors go into the real-time decision. One of the most important is uniquely available from Ethoca: knowledge gleaned from the Global Fraud Alliance (GFA) repository of historical credit card, eCheck and alternative payment experiences and outcomes. Over 500 million merchant and payment provider contributed records containing rich transaction information and outcomes across various payment types are in this rapidly growing database. Data can be linked by any attribute, offering a 360 degree view of behavioral patterns online that help identify both good and bad orders and customers.
To generate a merchant’s risk score and/or order recommendation for the eCheck transaction, this data is cross-matched and combined with several other factors including, but not limited to:
- Negative lists – links to comprised data, listed by merchants or payment providers
- Bank account standing - open, closed, in good standing, return history, business account
- Negative check databases - check past returns and related information
- Authentication risk - identity information matched with leading identity databases
- Velocities - dramatic or suspicious changes in usage patterns
- Data inconsistencies - flags suspicious information based on historical experiences
- Geo-location - high risk source IP address, inconsistencies with IP, bank location and address
- Regulatory - flags individuals on Specially Designated Nationals (SDN) or Blocked Persons (e.g., OFAC) lists
Most online retailers accept multiple payment types. Ethoca provides a suite of industry-leading fraud prevention services for card-not-present transactions. The Ethoca360 Fraud Detection family of services includes:
According to the website NACHA.org, ACH payment volume continues to double every five years. A recent Federal Reserve Payments Study revealed ACH payments had the largest compound annual growth rate (18.6 percent) of all U.S. non-cash payments.
About Ethoca
With offices in Dublin, Toronto, and New York, Ethoca provides anti-fraud services to businesses taking credit card orders online, by fax, through catalogs and by telephone. Ethoca pioneered and mastered the concept of collaborative fraud management to fight online payment fraud. Learn more at ethoca.com.