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.