Alliance Activities : Publications : Card-Not-Present Fraud: A Primer on Trends and Transaction Authentication Processes

Card-Not-Present Fraud: A Primer on Trends and Transaction Authentication Processes

Publication Date: February 2014

As the U.S. moves to EMV chip technology to significantly curb counterfeit card fraud at the retail point of sale (POS), criminals may turn their attention to committing card-not-present (CNP) fraud via online or telephone channels. Methods for securely authenticating CNP transactions and preventing fraud is the topic of the new white paper from the Smart Card Alliance Payments Council, “Card-Not-Present Fraud: A Primer on Trends and Transaction Authentication Processes.”

Criminals will often go after the weakest link in the chain. Many countries that have implemented EMV chip payments have reported fraudsters shifting their attention away from the physical POS to e-commerce channels where it’s much easier to make fraudulent purchases. It’s important that the U.S. payments industry be proactive and evaluate ways to strengthen the security of CNP channels at the same time as the payments industry migrates to higher levels of security in-store with EMV chip technology.

The white paper provides:

  • An overview of the predicted growth of CNP transactions due to increasing popularity of e-commerce transactions and the migration of EMV chip payments
  • Examples of authentication methods that provide a channel through which the cardholder can be verified, adding additional security for CNP transactions
  • A discussion on frequency and types of card fraud, including first-party fraud, CNP fraud, counterfeit fraud, lost and stolen card fraud, mail and non-receipt fraud and identity theft
  • An analysis of CNP fraud trends in U.K., France and Australia at different stages of EMV implementation

About the White Paper

The Smart Card Alliance Payments Council developed this white paper to educate payment industry stakeholders about the impact of and need to further address card-not-present fraud in conjunction with migration to EMV in the U.S. Participants involved in the development of this white paper included: ABnote; Capgemini; CH2M HILL; Chase; CPI Card Group; First Data Corporation; Gemalto; Giesecke & Devrient; Heartland Payment Systems; INSIDE Secure; MasterCard; NXP Semiconductors; Oberthur Technologies; SHAZAM; TSYS; Vantiv; Visa Inc..

About the Smart Card Alliance Payments Council

The Smart Card Alliance Payments Council focuses on facilitating the adoption of chip-enabled payments and payment applications in the U.S. through education programs for consumers, merchants, issuers, acquirers/processors, government regulators, mobile telecommunications providers and payments service providers. The group is bringing together payments industry stakeholders, including payments industry leaders, merchants and suppliers, and is working on projects related to implementing EMV, contactless payments, NFC-enabled payments and applications, mobile payments, and chip-enabled e-commerce. The Council’s primary goal is to inform and educate the market about the value of chip-enabled payments in improving the security of the payments infrastructure and in enhancing the value of payments and payment-related applications for industry stakeholders. Council participation is open to any Smart Card Alliance member who wishes to contribute to the Council projects.