Credit Card Fraud...PRICELESS!!!

=Group Members= Manisha Kooner,Annika Odegard, and Khai Tran.

=Introduction= Our project focuses on online credit card fraud. We will be looking at how and why online credit card fraud is becoming so increasingly popular. Our main mission is to educate the public on how to avoid becoming victims.

=What is Online Credit Card Fraud?= Online credit card fraud is a fraudulent purchase made online which is either not submitted by the legitimate cardholder or later claimed to be fraudulent by the cardholder.

=Why do criminals favour Online Credit Card Fraud?= The most popular reason for attempting credit card fraud is because it is so simple to do and can usually go unnoticed. There is very little effort required to clone a credit card compared to raiding someone’s house or pick pocketing a stranger on the street. One of the easiest ways that fraudsters can get their hands on your money is to clone your credit card when you hand it in at either a shop or a restaurant. This type of fraud is also appealing to criminals because not only can you clone the card easily, but it could be used halfway around the world within minutes. Credit card details can be copied in a matter of seconds, but it can take several days, or even months to realize that something’s wrong with your card. This is because credit card fraudsters can take two approaches to their spending. They will either spend a large amount at one time, knowing that the card will soon be cut off from them. Or, they will spend small amounts over a long period of time as the expenses will go unnoticed to the true credit card holder.

=What's being done?= Statistics have suggested that the extent to which criminals are targeting the internet for both credit and debit card debt is far greater than originally imagined. The banking industry has collected data that has shown that card losses from internet, phone, and mail order crime has totalled approximately 290 million euros. In fact, if failed attempts had been successful, the amount of losses could total 500 million euros. Because of this newfound data, the conservative party has called for a minister to deal specifically with online credit card crime. The BBC conducted an investigation and were amazed at how simple it is to obtain stolen credit cards via the internet. Two of their journalists had posed as computer hackers and were able to discover a webpage that was selling thousands of stolen credit and debit card. When the cards were used, the journalists were able to trace the fraudulet transactions to a number of addresses. The information was then given to the police to be dealt with accordingly. Along with government organizations, there are also private companies that specialize in catching credit card fraud criminals. For example, “The Third Man Comapany” develops fraud screening solutions and have concluded that potential criminals buy electronic gadgets such as satellite navigation systems, lap top computers and PDA’s. They then ship the items abroad and sell them in countries where the value for such items is a lot higher than it is in the UK, or the would sell it locally for half the price. Either way, they make a profit. David Davis believes that there should be a central place to report cyber crime. Along with this “central place”, it is necessary to have specialist prosecutors deal with it as it is becoming a major criminal scene that is not being dealt with properly. Andrew McClelland, of Interactive Media in Retail Group says, “If you’re committing a crime online then there is a high probability that you’ll get away with it and even if you are caught a fairly high probability again that the punishment won’t be that severe.” The Association of Payment Clearing Services found that there was a 25% rise in the fraudulent use of UK credit and debit cards. Even more shocking is that British Bank account details are on sale over the internet for as little as 5 Euros.

=Methods of Online Credit Card Fraud= There are four main methods of online credit card fraud. They are Phishing, Web Trojans, International Lottery Scams, and Website Spoofing, also called Pharming.

Phishing is an email scam which many people fall victim to. A fraudulent email is sent out to people claiming to be a trusted website, such as a users online banking website. The fraudulant email often states that a users online banking is going to be terminated if they do not login. The email will provide a link to a fake website, which will look identical to their online banking website, and users will be tricked into providing card numbers and passwords. Attackers will use this personal information, without the users consent, to commit online credit card fraud.
 * Phishing

Web Trojans are mini softwares that reside in a users computer and continuously feed a fraudster personal information. These Trojans are often downloaded from email attachments, media downloads, and over instant meseenger programs. Once a Trojan gains access to a users system attackers have accessibility to credit card numbers, aswell as other personal information.
 * Web Trojans

International Lottery Scams trick people into believing they have magically won an international multi-million dollar lottery. These scams occur through email and often ask you to reply back with personal information such as your name, address, phone number, social insurance number, banking details and a copy of your driver’s licence. By providing this personal information, attackers can gain access to credit card numbers and other financial data.
 * International Lottery Scams

Website Spoofing is also called Pharming. This method involves a user being redirected to a fraudulent site which looks almost identical to the legitimate site. Users are not aware that they have been redirected to a corrupt site and are tricked into revealing personal information, such as creid card information.
 * Website Spoofing or Pharming

=How to prevent Online Credit Card Fraud= There are many things you can do to help prevent online credit card fraud. Ensure that your computer is protected by anti-virus software and gaurded by firewalls.
 * Protect Your Computer

By only using trusted websites to make transactions and looking for special signs and notifications that are only present on trusted websites.
 * Only Use Trusted Websites

Passwords should be strong and should not include facts that are known by other people such as your birth date and mother's maiden name.
 * Do Not Reveal Your Passwords

This is often the last layer of protection that keeps you away from fraudulent actions.
 * Set Your Web Browser To The Highest Level Of Security

=Who are the victims?= The most frequent victims of credit card fraud are high value businesses. This is because the details could be sold for more than those of accounts with lower balances belonging to consumers. However, the twice yearly published report on internet security also found that there has been an increase in sophisticated and personalized attack on consumers.

=Punishment for Criminals= It is very difficult for law enforcement to punish criminals committing the crime of credit card fraud. The Secret Service is designated the crimes involving the US money supply. However, the crime must have a minimum of $2,000 stolen before investigating each crime. Most credit card criminals are aware of this, and therefore keep purchases from any one business to less than $2,000. Also, since credit card crime occurs across both state and international borders, criminals are often never prosecuted because the dollar amounts are too low for local law enforcement to pay for extradition. Therefore, it is best to secure your transactions and have security software and prevent fraud in the first place.

=Conclusion=

=References=

Manisha Kooner
 * 1) http://www.bankersonline.com/security/jb_websitespoofs.html
 * 2) http://www.cibc.com/ca/legal/credit-card-fraud.html
 * 3) http://www.crime-research.org/news/22.04.2005/1173/
 * 4) http://www.fbi.gov/pressrel/pressrel03/spoofing072103.htm
 * 5) http://www.fraudwatchinternational.com/lottery/
 * 6) http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/edu/pubs/consumer/credit/cre07.shtm
 * 7) http://www.lottery.co.uk/info/scams.asp
 * 8) http://www.microsoft.com/protect/yourself/phishing/identify.mspx
 * 9) http://www.publicsafety.gc.ca/prg/le/bs/phish-en.asp
 * 10) http://www.rcmp-grc.gc.ca/scams/ccandpc_e.htm
 * 11) http://wave.scotiabank.com/issue-04/feature.php
 * 12) http://www.theregister.co.uk/2003/10/03/trojan_hijacks_web_browsers/
 * 13) http://www.visa.ca/en/merchant/pdfs/merchant_fraud.pdf
 * 14) http://www.windowsecurity.com/trojanscan/

Annika Odegard Khai Tran
 * 1) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Credit_card_fraud#Mail.2FInternet_order_fraud
 * 2) http://www.precisesecurity.com/computer-articles/ca-0002b-credit-card-fraud.htm
 * 3) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Credit_card_fraud
 * 4) http://www.ic3.gov/default.aspx
 * 5) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Credit_card_hijacking
 * 6) http://www.onlyfinance.com/Credit-Cards/Online-credit-card-fraud-is-underestimated.aspx
 * 7) http://www.spamlaws.com/credit-fraud-stats.html
 * 8) http://consumerinformation.ca/app/oca/ccig/consumerChallenge.do?language=eng&consumerChallengeNo=282
 * 9) http://www.nrps.com/community/credit.asp
 * 10) http://www.cba.ca/en/viewDocument.asp?fl=3&sl=308&tl=309&docid=257
 * 11) http://www.visa.ca/en/merchant/fraudprevention/