Africa takes the CNP fraud origination crown

It may come as a surprise to some in the electronic payments community that the highest percentage of card-not-present (CNP) fraud by continent originates in Africa. But that is the conclusion of online fraud prevention firm iovation Inc. Seven percent of online transactions initiated from Africa in 2012 were fraudulent, based on transactions processed online via iovation's ReputationManager 360 software.

Following Africa as the top CNP fraud originators were the continents of Asia (5 percent), South America (4 percent), Europe (2 percent) and North America (1 percent), according to iovation. "While fraud origins are regionally diverse, these geographies were unified in the kinds of fraud cybercriminals attempted," said iovation Chief Technology Officer Scott Waddell. "The majority of fraud in 2012 involved credit card fraud, identity theft, and account takeover or hijacking attempts."

The firm said African fraudsters targeted mostly online dating and retail websites, while their Asian cohorts targeted online dating and massively multiplayer online gaming websites a third of the time. In South America, 70 percent of fraudulent transactions were aimed at retail websites, iovation said. In comparison, European cyber criminals, as well as their North American counterparts, spread out their schemes across various industries, including gambling, financial services and the travel industries, the firm noted.

Iovation said Real IP, a plug-in application for ReputationManager 360, can determine the origin of fraud attempts despite fraudsters disguising true locations with web proxies, or intermediate servers, through which online communications are transmitted.

Editorial Note:

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