TecMundo spoke to Omar Jarouche, ClearSale's Manager of Statistical Intelligence to find out exactly how criminals use the data they are able to collect online. ClearSale specializes in developing anti-fraud solutions for e-commerce.
"It is actually quite easy to get this type of data online," says Jarouche, mentioning especially the large number of credit card transactions (InfoCCs). "All you need to unlock a telephone line, issue a credit card or purchase insurance is a person's registration data".
"Sometimes fraudsters want to open a bank account only to have proof of address, which they then use to buy a phone chip used for other criminal activities, such as kidnapping" he added. Jarouche went on to say that ClearSale normally tracks this type of illegal activity and even has agents embedded in some of these groups to remain up-to-date in the most recent techniques used by criminals. When questioned about how logins are leaked by private companies, Jarouche believes that hacking or technical failures in system security are primarily responsible.
"People shouldn't worry about hiding or deleting their online data, in fact that's something quite impossible to do. What is important is that companies protect their customers and themselves against improper use of this data".
"If we succeed in this, we will be able to staunch the data trafficking market. If a criminal is no longer able to buy online, activate a card or buy a phone line, this type of criminal activity will diminish," he added.
How is fraud detected?
ClearSale uses an interesting method to detect e-commerce fraud and avoid cards issued with third-party data. As soon as a purchase is made at a partner e-store, the company's automated system receives the transaction data and checks it against the data in a unique database and system, coming up with a score that indicates the likelihood that the transaction is fraudulent.
Transactions with a low score are automatically approved. Transactions with a high score are sent to a team of analysts who run a manual check that includes verification of buyer data, past purchases, buying behavior, etc. If necessary, the card owner is called to confirm some of the information.
Currently ClearSale protects 80% of Brazil's online trade, covering some 2 thousand e-commerce sites and running 300 million fraud checks each year. Fewer than 6% of the transactions require manual analysis.
SOURCE: TECMUNDO