On-line identity theft schemes such as phishing, where a
fraudster sends an e-mail linking to a fake web site on which users
are asked to provide personal account information, are growing.
A recent report by the Anti-Phishing Working Group revealed an
increase of 180% in phishing attacks between March and April this
year, with the overall increase since November 2003 reaching almost
4,000%.
Until now, enforcement agencies and the financial services
industry have reacted to the frauds after the event, trying to
track down the cyber criminals that perpetrated them, and issuing
alerts – sometimes too late – to targeted customers.
The scheme announced yesterday by MasterCard and NameProtect
takes a different approach, looking to detect the scams in
real-time as they proliferate across the internet.
According to the companies, the initiative will use
NameProtect's internet detection technology to continuously monitor
domain names, web pages, on-line discussions, spam e-mail, and
other on-line formats. The system will seek to identify on-line
trading rings and phishing attacks as they appear on the
internet.
NameProtect will report back to MasterCard, which will then be
able to pass on information to the proper law enforcement
authorities. MasterCard will also be able to alert its member
financial institutions – numbering almost 25,000 – in order that
they can protect themselves and their customers.
"We are confronting identity theft head-on by taking the fight
directly to where credit card scams breed and spread," said Sergio
Pinon, senior vice president, MasterCard Global Security & Risk
Services.
"By identifying these illegal card number-swapping rings and
working to close down these on-line 'credit card black markets,' as
well as sites that are established solely to steal personal
information, we can squash illegal activity before people's
accounts are compromised," he added.
