Telephone Verification Counters Online Fraud

Computer crimes are an ongoing threat, according to a survey of 538 security professionals in U.S. corporations that was conducted by the Computer Security Institute and the FBI’s Computer Intrusion Squad.

One such crime is online identity theft, and the two most popular ways to carry it out is though Phishing and Pharming.

Phishers bait you using provocative fake emails that send you to fake sites, and are successful because there is still a large part of the Internet population that is unaware of their tactics. Phishers are impersonators claiming to be legitimate companies in order to scam users into giving up private account information (ex. banks, popular shopping sites, etc.) Phishing, in a way, is similar to fishing with a net. Phishers throw their "nets" out, bait users to enter, and eventually drag in a good percentage of victims.

Pharmers are more insidious. They gather unsuspecting victims by redirecting legitimate URLs to bogus sites — even if users type correct addresses into their browsers. So basically, someone believing that (s)he is interacting with his/her bank is actually providing the pharmer with his or her name, address and phone number, not to mention bank information, social security number and/or other private information that can be used to perpetrate a bevy of offline as well as online criminal activities.

Armed with information they harvest from consumer inputs, Phishers’ and Pharmers’ activities account for billions of dollars a year in online fraud. Companies today can play a key role in protecting their customers and themselves by fending them off; stepping up site security and making it more difficult for Phishers and Pharmers to use their ill-gotten information.

Counter online crime by integrating a live telephone verification XML Web service into your online applications that not only communicates directly with the person interacting with your site but also validates the information he or she enters into your Web forms.

Verify phone numbers. After someone enters his/her phone number into your site, with a telephone verification system in place, he or she receives a phone call or text message that delivers a Personalized Identification Number (PIN) that (s)he must then enter into the form before continuing on. This checks to see if the phone number is working and correct. At this point, most fraudsters generally fall out. They thrive on impersonating others and doing things that can’t be traced, so, most likely, their input phone numbers will be fake and they won’t be able to complete their transactions.

Validate that the contact is who (s)he says (s)he is. To guard against those that try to beat the system by using others’ phones, check the input phone number against the listed name associated with it. You might also decide to check the contact’s geographical location or other information, such as address listing, to verify that the person placing the call is who (s)he says (s)he is.

As long as the Internet exists and people continue to do business online, Phishers and Pharmers are not going away. Tens, if not hundreds of thousands of Internet users are duped every day. You can help protect your customers and your company by thwarting these fraudsters’ attempts to use the information they harvest from unwitting consumers.

Step up the security on your site by verifying phone numbers with a live telephone verification service that not only communicates directly with each person that interacts with your site, but also has the capacity to validate that his or her information is correct.