Profile

Location

Watford

Member since

2008

Writes about

Security Payments Regulation & Compliance

Andy's blog archive

2014 (1) 2013 (2) 2012 (3) 2010 (2) 2009 (1)

Andy Morris

Risk Business Solutions Consultant at ACI Worldwide

Message Posts: 9 Comments: 4

Bio Andy provides assistance to ACI's risk business solutions group and Proactive Risk Manager solution Career History Andy has extensive experience dealing with financial crime and payment processing. He worked with Barclays Bank which gave him practical payments experience with financial crime and he represented the bank at APACS, the UK payments association. Previously Andy managed the EMEA Risk and Complianc

Blogs

One step forward and two steps back for Fraud in the UK

17 Mar 2014

Disappointingly, judging from the recent latest round of fraud statistics,[1] it looks like the UK is back on the naughty step in terms of countries with the highest fraud losses. New figures released by Financial Fraud Action UK (FFA UK) show that levels of card and online banking fraud rose during 2013, with fraud losses on UK cards totalling £4...

What do EMV, payments fraud and the Top 40 have in common?

10 Oct 2013

Pause for thought…….quiz time. Can you remember who topped the UK charts on the 14th February 2006? Now, can you also remember what was the main business driver behind the UK’s move to the EMV standard of “chip and pin,” which also coincidentally was the same official launch date (14th February 2006)? Well let me put you out of your misery. It was...

Give mobile a chance

07 Jun 2013

Mobile bared the brunt of some bad press this week. Firstly, the story that NFC could be compromised through a new app, secondly the charger that could penetrate the iOS operating system and thirdly the emergence of a new breed of consumers labelled as “paynuphobics” – purportedly 26% of adults who are scared to use online and mobile because of se...

Shock and Awe - NFA Fraud indicator puts fraud at 73bn GBP

04 Apr 2012

For those for you that have been tracking the NFA’s last estimate was £38.4bn, but the rise is really buried in the detail and largely attributed to the NFA casting their net on UK PLC a little wider and completing more granular analysis. There is also some interesting comparative finger point for example UK Government sector at £20.3bn, whilst U...

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Andy is Commenting on

Card and online banking fraud losses on the rise in UK

Now I'm not clairvoyant, but warning signs pointing to increased fraud losses were buried in last year's results, despite them being the lowest figures in the last five years: £341m. Specifically, there were two exceptions where plastic fraud increased (mail inception and lost and stolen). This was a clear signal that the fraudsters were returning back to low-tech methods. Let's not beat up chip and pin here - it's had success. We too readily forget that had we not adopted it, extrapolated losses were expected to rise upwards of £840m. However, let me continue with the low-tech theme for now. Counterfeit cheques also showed evidence of increased losses – again the jump from counterfeit cards and cash to cheque should not have been a surprise. Social engineering is a big menace and we should recognise the efforts of industry, trade bodies and government to educate the customer to be wise to the threats. Ignorance is a real problem and I think the case for contributory negligence against the customer continues to build. One last thought. I'm just puzzled as to whether all banks are equally impacted or whether we have a few non-performers who might be distorting the statistics. That's something the trade bodies, regulators and shareholders probably need to contemplate.

28 Sep 2012 Reply Read article

Is the War on Fraud being won?

A valid and interesting viewpoint. Perhaps we can carry this discussion on offline. Please feel free to contact my office – happy to chat further.

08 Mar 2012 Reply Read article

Is the War on Fraud being won?

Thanks. Putting out a statement that 41% of the fall is attributed to fraudsters impersonating customers is a little ambiguous and misleading from my perspective. Yes fraudsters can use genuine cardholder details to obtain goods or services (impersonation). However, the reality is here we are measuring and talking about third party fraud - fraud not perpetrated by the cardholder. Yet CIFAS reports cite 18% increases in Account Takeover and 10% rises in Identity theft - also third party fraud. The CIFAS measurements aren’t necessarily at the payment (Card) level – which is really the point that I was making in respect of comparing apples with apples in my initial blog. Finally, not sure I share your views on the first party issue. I think the industry takes the topic very seriously given that it is widely suspected that this type of fraud can also be a vehicle used to finance terrorist activities.

07 Mar 2012 Reply Read article

ID thieves hawk details of 21 million German bank accounts

2008 has witnessed some of the biggest insider fraud incidents affecting both consumers and the companies the data or goods are stolen from alike. According to a report released in June 2008 by BDO Stoy Hayward, fraud cost UK businesses more than £705m in the last six months, a 74 per cent increase over the same period last year. The biggest threat to business, however, came internally, with management fraud 46 per cent of the total. According to BDO Stoy Hayward, the problem of business fraud was certain to grow as senior executives at British businesses are becoming increasingly concerned about fraud risk as the credit crunch bites. As a result, we might see even more unscrupulous employees give into temptation in the near future, convinced they are incapable of being caught whether this is in an organisation or financial institution. However, there are ways in which fraud can be combated. Financial institutions should consider monitoring employee activity more closely through Point of Compromise (PoC) detection. Even though, traditionally, PoC is the location at which the card skimming has taken place, the same techniques also allow banks to closely monitor employees accessing data and detect potentially suspicious behaviour. As a result, banks are in a position to generate an internal watch list to monitor customer transactions. Given the current market environment and potential for reputational damage, fraud prevention needs to become a focus for any institution. Measures also need to be in place to prohibit temptation. Ultimately, employees should be monitored and placed under surveillance so that any bad apples are quickly identified. As such, banks and organisations need to adopt a single view of all activity. This places financial institutions in a much stronger position to detect employee fraud. In an environment built on trust, a reputation for integrity is one of the most valuable assets an organisation or financial institution can possess.

12 Dec 2008 Reply Read article