Credit Cards’ Boost E-security
More than 18 percent of 1,000 online consumers polled by research firm GartnerG2 either already use or are planning to use new protocols from Visa and MasterCard that require a password for transactions, reports CBS Marketwatch. The systems, free to consumers, are the online equivalent of signing a receipt and represent credit card issuers’ latest bid to protect e-commerce from fraud, according Avivah Litan, Gartner’s vice president of financial services. “They realize consumers aren’t shopping as much as they would if they felt more secure,” she says.
About five percent of online consumers say they fell victim to credit card fraud last year, according to Gartner’s survey, conducted in January. Another two percent faced identity theft, although they don’t know by what means. More than $700 million in electronic sales were lost to fraud in 2001, representing 1.14 percent of total annual online sales of $61.8 billion, about the same percentage as in 2000. “The attacks are more frequent and sophisticated, but the level of fraud has stayed constant because merchants are more proactive in fighting it,” Litan says.
Moderator Comment: Is safety still a major concern
for most that purchase products online?
According to the Gartner study, five percent of consumers
say they were the victims of credit card fraud. Two percent report having been
on the bad side of identity theft. From experience, the numbers reported from
this sample seem high. [George
Anderson – Moderator]