Consumers look favourably on anti-fraud measures
By Louise Naughton
27 April 2011
85% of consumers are worried and dissatisfied
with the level of protection online businesses are providing to
stop fraudsters – up 5% on 2009, according to a study by fraud
technology provider ThreatMetrix and research firm the Ponemon
Institute.
The Consumers’ Reaction to Online
Fraud survey shows 42% of respondents have been a victim of
online fraud, of which 80% said they did not report the crime at
all and 19% said they only reported it to the online business
directly.
“A lot of fraudulent activity goes unreported
today, making it difficult for online businesses to fully
understand the prominence and seriousness of the problem,” said
Reed Taussig, president and CEO of ThreatMetrix.
“With a rise in online transactions and activities across
devices, more needs to be done to educate online merchants, banks,
social outlets and other businesses on how to decrease fraudulent
activity.”
Those survey respondents that expressed concern over online
fraud said they felt online merchants, banks and social networks
are failing to take the additional steps required to prevent
fraudsters from stealing customer information.
Almost 75% of consumers would allow a trusted online business to
place an invisible cookie on their computer to automatically
authenticate them and 82% said they would expect an online business
to offer alternative authentication methods if they were unable to
match the consumer’s digital fingerprint to their security
system.
“Our survey results help validate the need and consumer
preference for technology, such as device identification, to
authenticate identity as opposed to using personally identifiable
information,” said Dr. Larry Ponemon, chairman and founder of the
Ponemon Institute.
“Consumers expressed much more willingness to share data like
ISP, computer serial number, type and make, rather than information
like date of birth and telephone number.”