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SINGAPORE : E-commerce fraud is now seeing a rising trend, while fake credit card cases have decreased slightly.
The Association of Banks in Singapore said reasons include more people making transactions on the web and unsecured systems.
Buying a table or a pair of shoes is now done easily with just a click of the mouse. But more such clicks also mean potential for e-commerce fraud, when one uses credit cards to pay virtually.
In 2007, banks in Singapore saw a loss of 51 per cent due to fraudulent e-commerce transactions. And as of June this year, the number has gone up to about 63 per cent.
On the other hand, banks experienced a loss of about 35 per cent due to fake credit card cases three years ago, compared to 26 per cent seen as of June this year.
Director of the Association of Banks in Singapore, Ong-Ang Ai Boon, said: "For instance, the banks, for every $100,000 that they receive in sale, about S$2-$3 is lost to frauds in credit cards. Compare this with the global average of every $1,000, $9 is lost to fraud.
"This trend could escalate as more and more customers buy their products and goods off the internet. However, as the merchants and the banks see that there could be fraud, with more and more fraud taking place, then it is worth to invest in secure system to authenticate sales done by their customers, and that will reduce significantly the number of frauds over the internet."
To better protect customers, banks like DBS have introduced more security measures such as a one-time password.
Peter Hazlewood, who is MD and head of compliance services and security at DBS Bank, explained: "The customer will be sent a text message by the issuing bank with the one-time password; enter that in the portal and then the transaction will proceed.
"Secondly, we will send a message to customers on a certain threshold. For card present transactions, there are dollar thresholds, for card not present transactions, internet transactions, they will also receive a text message, informing them that a transaction has been conducted on their card of a certain amount.
"In addition, for any transaction outside of the customer's usual pattern, they will receive a text message as well on their handphone. Finally, customers can call us and can give us a dollar threshold, over which all transactions will be notified to them."
So experts said that it is critical to inform one's bank when one's phone number has changed.
Banks may have the security systems in place. But ultimately, consumers must play their part. This includes not allowing shops to swipe their card twice unnecessarily and making sure they do not lose sight of their credit card. In addition, with more people buying items over the internet, experts said it is important to install and update the anti-virus software on their computer. - CNA/ms
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