This Fraud Prevention Month, Visa Canada Highlights Fraud Prevention Tools for Merchants

TORONTO, ON--(Marketwired - March 01, 2016) - As ecommerce sales continue to soar, Visa Canada is dedicating its annual Fraud Prevention Month campaign to educating online retailers about how to help prevent card-not-present (CNP) fraud. Together with the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre, Visa Canada will offer a free merchant webinar on March 4, 2016, to help educate and inform retailers about the fraud prevention tools that are available. Information and registration details are available online at www.visasecuritysense.ca.

Global ecommerce sales are projected to reach $3.5 trillion by 2019ⁱ, positioning online retailers for a lot of new business. However, the capacity for increased revenue comes with potential for increased fraud attempts. In Canada, card-not-present fraud -- fraud perpetrated online, over the phone or through the mail -- currently accounts for 80 per cent of total fraudⁱⁱ. To benefit from the surge in sales, and lower the risks of a CNP environment, online retailers should educate themselves on the tools and tactics available to help prevent fraud.

"As ecommerce continues to grow to record levels, we want to help online retailers in Canada implement tools that mitigate the risk of card-not-present fraud," said Gord Jamieson, Head of Visa Canada Risk Services. "While no single fraud tool is the answer; Visa promotes adopting a multi-layered approach to help protect all the players in the payments system, whether they are shopping online in a store, from their computer or phone."

As part of their fraud prevention mandate, the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre (CAFC) continues to work directly with merchants and financial institutions to disrupt CNP Fraud. In 2015, participating merchants flagged 14,498 suspicious transactions to the CAFC for investigation. Of these, 86 per cent were identified as fraudulent cards, totaling $11,831,196.42 in attempted card-not-present fraud that was divertedⁱⁱⁱ.

"We are pleased to team up with Visa to help educate retailers about ways to prevent card not present fraud," said Sgt. Al Boulianne, Manager, CAFC. "It's important for both consumers and retailers to educate themselves and take steps to protect information and help prevent fraud."

Visa offers three globally available services for validating the payment card and authenticating the cardholder: CVV2 (or the three digit code on the back of a card), Address Verification Service (AVS) and Verified by Visa (VbV). 

Every Visa transaction is processed through VisaNet, the technology backbone that supports the billions of transactions made on the global network. In a split second, Visa analyzes multiple data sets such as past transactions, whether the account has been involved in a data compromise, global fraud trends, and nearly 500 other pieces of data, helping identify criminal patterns and prevent fraud before it happens.

For online retailers, Visa Canada offers the following fraud prevention 'red flags' to look out for when processing orders and payments:

• Larger-than-normal orders
• Multiple orders for the same product
• Orders for products readily convertible to cash (i.e. electronics)
• Orders made up of "big-ticket" items
• Customer requests "rush" or "overnight" delivery
• Single card used with multiple shipping addresses
• Billing address different than shipping address
• Orders have different names, addresses, and card numbers, but from a single IP address
• Multiple transactions on a single card over a short time period

For cardholders, Visa's layered approach to fraud prevention includes EMV Chip, E-Promise, and Visa's Zero Liability policy. Information about Visa's multiple layers of security, including Visa's Zero Liability policy, are available on Visa's website, accessible at www.visa.ca.

About Visa Inc.

Visa Inc. (NYSE: V) is a global payments technology company that connects consumers, businesses, financial institutions, and governments in more than 200 countries and territories to fast, secure and reliable electronic payments. We operate one of the world's most advanced processing networks -- VisaNet -- that is capable of handling more than 65,000 transaction messages a second, with fraud protection for consumers and assured payment for merchants. Visa is not a bank and does not issue cards, extend credit or set rates and fees for consumers. Visa's innovations, however, enable its financial institution customers to offer consumers more choices: pay now with debit, pay ahead of time with prepaid or pay later with credit products. For more information, visit usa.visa.com, visacorporate.tumblr.com and @VisaNewsCA.

ⁱ Source: eMarketer July 2015, includes online and mobile ecommerce

ⁱⁱ Source TC40 client fraud reporting in nominal USD (as of 01/04/2016)

ⁱⁱⁱ 2015 Annual Report: Project Bad Card

Image Available: http://www.marketwire.com/library/MwGo/2016/2/29/11G085088/Images/infographic-9c127bb8c943a19d9658feb882a8ef36.jpg