Credit Card Fraud Essay

Nextcard, Inc was a model for successful people who were looking to the internet in the 1990’s as an enterprise. Nextcard was founded in 1996 in California as the first credit card company to issue cards online. Since the internet was still being introduced to households throughout the United States internet companies were still developing effective methods to reach potential customers.

MasterCard Incorporated is one of the world’s premier credit card processing and money transfer companies in the world. It is the second major payment company in the United States. They focus on making payment transactions safer and beneficial to the society while delivering value through their innovation and execution. MasterCard has three main competitors, Visa at the very top, American Express, and Discover. Visa Inc. has the largest market share of 13.7 percent in the United States with revenue of $12,702 million in 2014. In the same financial year, MasterCard Inc. has recorded total revenue of only $9,473 million and 7.3 percent of total market shares. MasterCard’s SWOT analysis revealed its strength of being the world’s second

As technology advances over the years, we have experienced and noticed that the trend in how payment are received have shift tremendously. Twenty years ago, check was the preferred way of payment. In today’s world, more and more payments are done by credit cards. Credit card transactions are instance that provides a faster payment method.

U.S. consumers remain addicted to credit. Consumer debt continues to rise to record levels and a significant number of households have lost control of their finances. Credit cards can be a useful financial tool when used appropriately. However, research clearly indicates that consumers are not using credit cards wisely and consumers do not understand the terms and conditions of the credit card contract. Adding to this public dilemma, the practices of numerous credit card issuers have been described as predatory. The Credit CARD Accountability Responsibility and Disclosure Act of 2009, also known as the Credit CARD Act of 2009, is the first major reform of the credit card industry since the Truth in Lending Act of 1968. The Credit CARD Act of

1 Peter 5:8 (New King James Version), “Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour”: resonates throughout Mrs. Hefner’s being due to recent events of fraudulent withdrawals on her debit card. On August 6, 2015, she became considerably alarmed with her inability to disburse funds for her repast at Fried Green Tomatoes in Montgomery, Alabama since the declining of the transaction. Thus, immediately she telephoned Max Federal Credit Union to query on what episodes emerged to trigger this calamitous and problematic quandary. After devoting two consecutive hours on the phone waiting patiently on an attendant to answer, the credit union representative informed her that there were fraudulent charges in the amount of $300 in less than a week’s time. Nevertheless, the advances in technology are advantageous but detrimental to our financial wellbeing. This paper will examine how technology has changed the methods of theft and compare the disparity that prevails amongst the conventional thief and contemporary.

During this project, the question arose; who is or has been the biggest winner of identity theft? In the few rare cases involving identity theft where a perpetrator was caught, the culprits in the following cases were identified. And the runner up in the game of identity theft is: Albert Gonzales who in 2008 stole 30 million credit and bank card numbers, hacked several corporate data bases and stole over $200 million. And our grand prize winner is: Philip Cummings who in 2002 obtained 15,000 consumer’s identities and hacked a credit reporting agency. He stole $2.7 million. (Graphs.net). While there is no clear solution to prevent being a victim of identity theft, a person can only take precautions, be aware of their surroundings, monitor

‘’Founded in 1994 the EMV referred to Europay, MasterCard, and Visa, who together provided better card security.’’ (www.thebreif.com) Currently credit card fraud has been at an all time high in the years 2016 and 2017. This activity has skyrocketed since young teens and young adults have the idea of targeting adults and senior citizens, and using someone 's information to buy whatever the scammer desires. “The U.S. is responsible for 47% of the world’s fraud despite only accounting for 24% of total worldwide card volume.’’ (www.nasdaq.com) Credit card fraud has been a big problem, although through new security implementations such as chips and pin systems, the level of security associated with cards has improved. In the future credit card fraud may come to a stop, or at least slow down significantly. With this new security being implemented and new legislation laws credit card offenders may finally be brought to justice.

Card holders have several countermeasures, including complex software which can assemble a vest interaction and guesstimate the possibility of fraud. For example, a large trade occurring in a great distance from the cardholder’s home might seem mistrustful. Merchants may be commanded to call the card holder for authentication, or reject the transaction or do whatever they want. Customers must call the issuer and prove their identity to get their card back.

According to the Bureau of Justice, Identity Theft is Defined as “unauthorized use or attempted use of an existing account, unauthorized use or attempted use of personal information to open a new account, or misuse of personal information for a fraudulent purpose”. It is estimated that on average; 12.1 million US households experience identity theft annually, which it about 7% of the population. The average financial loss per incident is $5,130 and 64.1% of those reported identity thefts are solely credit card based. This equals to an annual 7.7 million people having their credit card number stolen costing them 41.3 billion dollars. Needless to say there is a major opportunity increased credit card security to

Over the past few years the internet has become a tempting place for criminals to acquire identifying information, such as passwords and banking data. In criminal’s haste to explore the exciting features of the internet, many people respond to “spam” unsolicited emails that promise them benefits, but request identifying information, without recognizing that in many situations, the requester has no intention of keeping their promise. In some situations, criminals reportedly have exploited computer technology to acquire large amounts of personal information. With enough identifying data about an individual, a criminal can take over that individual’s identity to conduct a wide range of crimes: for example, false applications for loans, credit cards, fraudulent withdrawals from bank accounts, acquiring other goods, or privileges which the criminal might deny if they were to use their real name. If the criminal takes steps to ensure that bills for the falsely acquired credit cards, or bank statements showing the unauthorized withdrawals are sent to another address other than the victims, the victim may not become aware of what’s happening until the criminal has already inflicted substantial damage on the victim’s assets, credit and reputation (Identity Theft).

In a post-crash market, financial firms face many challenges which include more severe regulations, more demanding consumers, and how to take advantage of new technology. Financial crime costs an estimated $20 billion in losses annually, and the operational costs of compliance continue to grow substantially each year. Due to the complexity of financial services, detecting and preventing fraud within the financial world is nearly impossible. The threats can be either domestic or international and they may originate internally or externally. “Perhaps the most disturbing statistic in the 2010 ACFE study is the one showing that only 6.7 percent of fraudsters had previous convictions for a fraud-related offense, and 7.7 percent had charges with no conviction, which means that 85.6 percent of the frauds were committed by persons who had never been charged with or convicted of a

When credit card fraud is committed, attackers may make fraudulent purchases under someone else’s identity. This poses a risk to an unsuspecting victims’ credit scores, personal bank accounts, and social standing. According to the Federal Trade Commission, there were 332,646 reported cases of identity theft in 2014. The state of Florida had the highest reported cases of identity theft nationwide (Mayfield, 2015). As a result of this crime, many individuals have to deal with recovering from compromised credit, finances, and personal status.

The evolution of technology has enabled criminals a new form of prey. This problem is known as identity theft or identity fraud. The development and growth of the world wide web and personal computers being have made everyday things easier for everyone, but have also made it easier for criminals to gain access to information needed to steel someone’s identity. This is a crime which cost people thousands of dollars and countless hours of time spent to regain their losses and the damages done by having their life turned upside down by identity theft. Albrecht(2016). This paper will discuss just how big of a problem identity theft is, a few of the typical types of identity theft, possible preventative actions that should be taken to avoid identity theft, and the actions a person having identity stolen should take once they realize they have been compromised. The main thing that seems to have to be done is preventative measures by both the potential victims and creditors to keep information private so thieves cannot get the access in the first place. The more difficult that you make it to get to your information the less likely you are going to be victimized. Albrecht(2016).

“It’s not just cards. It’s phishing kits, malware, spammer lists,” O’Farrell said. “It’s like a shopping mall for cybercrime. “This paper is not intended to go into detail on the dark web, however it has some relevance to our case regarding Home Depot. Recently, after the breach with Home Depot a large batch of credit and debit cards appeared and went on sale in the underground marketplace. The specific site is called “carder forum” where the information is sold but is very fast pace. Once the information has been determined lost or stolen the card information will decrease in value and soon become worthless. For example, since Target is similar to the Home Depot case when the Target information appeared for sale in the forums card numbers fetched up to $120 each, O’Farrell says who is an identity theft expert at Credit Sesame and founder of the non-profit Identify Theft Council, based in San Francisco. Within weeks, as banks started to cancel the cards, the prices dropped to $8 a card, he

In today’s economy, cash or a credit card is needed to meet the basic human needs. It is an apparent fact that we need cash or credit cards to purchase items such as food, clothing, and to buy gas. Also, when you are out shopping and discover that you have used all the cash in your possession, it is then that you realize that the advantage of having a credit card. Furthermore, with cash, you are restricted to the amount in your wallet or purse; however, a credit card allows you to pay for your purchase at a later date. Both cash and credit cards can be useful when you manage them wisely. While cash and credit cards are similar in that they both are readily accessible, used for goods and services at the time of purchase, they are dissimilar because of theft, high- interest rates, identity theft.