Securing The Web

Securing The Web

The Age
22 April 2002
Stewart Carter

IT MUST have seemed too simple: after years of searching for a high-tech solution to the problem of online credit-card fraud, Visa has decided that the answer is the old-fashioned password.

So when Internet shoppers visit sites supporting Visa's new Verified by Visa program, those who have registered their card will be asked for a password as soon as they type in their credit-card number.

The ANZ is the first Australian bank to support the new Visa initiative and is offering it as an incentive with its new ANZ Gold and ANZ First Visa cards. Both are "smart" credit cards with an in-built microchip offering extra security protection.

Nick Reade, the general manager for e-Enablement with the ANZ's card division, says online card fraud is a growing problem, particularly in the United States and Europe.

Earlier this year, research group Gartner released a report claiming that card fraud in the US was 12 times more common online than in shops.

Titled Online Transaction Fraud and Prevention Get More Sophisticated: Companies, Markets, Forces, the report found that credit cards account for more than 90 per cent of Internet transactions in the US.

It also said that one in six US online consumers had been the victims of credit-card fraud, with a further one in 12 also falling victim to identity theft. Things aren't improving, either.

According to Gartner, online fraud rates have not fallen during the past year or two, despite significant efforts by merchants, card issuers and law enforcement groups to curb it. In fact, the report's figures suggest there has been a slight increase in the problem over the past two years.

In 2000, Gartner estimated online fraud losses were 1.13 per cent, or $US44.2 billion (about $A83 billion), of online sales. And last year about $US700 million was lost, or 1.14 per cent of a total $US61.8 billion in online sales.

"Card fraud online isn't as big in Australia but we're getting on the front foot anyway by giving our customers an additional level of protection," the ANZ's Mr Reade says.

"In fact, the ANZ is one of the first two or three banks anywhere in the world to have implemented Verified by Visa for chip-cards."

TO SEE HOW THE VERIFIED BY VISA SYSTEM WORKS, CLICK ON TO WWW.ANZ.COM/FIRST/VERIFIED.ASP

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