If you are not in the anti-fraud business you may not have given much thought to the difference between online CNP (Card Not Present) transactions and swiped (card present) transactions. If you are an online merchant this difference likely keeps you up at night.
If a fraudulent CNP transaction is reported, the acquiring bank hosting the merchant account that received the money from the fraudulent transaction must make restitution – or essentially, the merchant suffers the chargeback; whereas, with a swiped transaction, the issuer of the card is liable for restitution.
So, if you are an online merchant – what do you do? More importantly, where do you go to learn what can be done to combat CNP fraud?
DJ Murphy, Editor-in-Chief of CardNotPresent.com, took a few minutes out of his busy schedule this week to enlighten us about a place that merchants and anti-fraud professionals can gather each year to learn about the latest technologies and strategies for combating this ever-growing problem. That place is the CNP Expo. CNP Expo is held each year during the third or fourth week of May. This year the Expo is Monday, May 14 – Thursday, May 17 at the Rosen Shingle Creek Resort in Orlando, Florida.
DJ explained that the CNP Expo was born of a need for educational content relevant to e-commerce fraud as well as a platform for networking amongst e-commerce anti-fraud professionals. He said, “There was no real established educational track for fraud professionals. Largely they learn from networking, so industry events and publications are very important to them. In a world that evolves very quickly, more was needed to help these professionals stay current on what can be done to stay a step ahead of the bad guys.”
The Expo started in 2013 with only about 100 attendees. It has grown to a significant event that will be attended by over 1000 e-commerce anti-fraud professionals and merchant executives. Dozens of vendors and industry experts will provide educational opportunities as well as technology solutions.
About two years ago the CNP Expo became a part of Reed Exhibitions. Reed Exhibitions organizes over 500 events in 30 countries, including ISC West – a premier conference for the security industry.
One trend sure to be a topic at the Expo is the shift from traditional credit card transaction fraud to the more nefarious account takeover strategy being seen more and more. Fraudsters are taking advantage of the enormous amount of stolen Personally Identifiable Information (PII) that is flooding the dark web. With this information, criminals can take over a consumer’s online account with one or more merchants. They then have the ability to modify protection devices put in place to notify the consumer of potential fraud, as well as the ship-to address for purchases. With stolen PII, ne’er-do-wells can even create new accounts in a consumer’s name totally unbeknownst to them.
Exhibiting vendors at the Expo will show the latest in anti-fraud technologies. These are sure to include multi-factor authentication services and even behavioral analytics software. If protecting your company from e-commerce fraud is part of your responsibility, you should look into attending the CNP Expo.
Steven Bowcut, CPP, PSP is the Editor-in-Chief for Brilliance Security Magazine