Fighting Online Fraud Through eDNA by Online Security
Long ago, a cartoon ran in The New Yorker, showing a canine seated at a desktop computer. “On the internet,” ran the caption, “nobody knows you’re a dog.”
The same premise holds true today and poses a knotty question in online commerce and FinTech: How do you know the person on the other end of a transaction is really who they say they are? And even if you do confirm their identity, how do you know that person can be trusted?
One firm, IdentityMind Global, provides real-time risk management and fraud prevention through “digital identities,” collecting data across dozens of parameters, separating the financial ecosystem into good actors — those deserving of trust (and completed transactions) — and, well, bad actors.
In an interview with PYMNTS’ Karen Webster, Garrett Gafke, president, CEO and founder of IdentityMind Global, said that the construction of digital identities, by necessity, goes well beyond data that might be thought of as standard, such as a street address, a credit card number or a two-factor security question test.
True merchant risk goes hand-in-hand with global digital commerce and, as Gafke described it, comes in the form of people with little or no history — no history of driver’s licenses, credit cards issued, traditional bank accounts or other standard bits of information. They may not even be scored by the traditional credit bureaus. Yet, these individuals are looking to do business and conduct transactions. Their would-be partners on the other end of the transaction must decide whether to enter into a relationship (however fleeting) with that consumer … or not.
Gafke noted that “transactions of any kind leave a kind of financial, online exhaust” and that each transaction has attributes that, taken together over time, ultimately, can be assembled into a digital identity. “This is real, current information,” said Gafke, “rather than just public, physical information. Good reputations are built slowly, while bad reputations come very quickly.”
That digital identity is established, as Gafke said, in IdentityMind Global’s platform, which links and finds correlations between disparate bits of information and transaction trails that “process, capture, rate and build overall profiles on online identities.” Emails, digital wallets and payments are all linked together, said the executive, to build a “trusted” digital identity.
“Trust” would be the operative word in the relationship between individuals and the firms with which they seek to do business. Trust would also extend to, and be colored by, the people associated with that individual or business. Consider how, in the age of social media, amidst concerns about money laundering, an individual might be viewed with demonstrable trails of following, say, terrorist-linked groups on Twitter.
In a recent whitepaper by the firm, IdentityMind Global also noted that additional data points may come from internet-enabled devices, which can, for instance, help bring location into consideration when determining good actors from bad and in screening across sanctioned individuals or nations.
Using these techniques, said IdentityMind Global in its whitepaper, can help reduce manual review time. There is also a financially positive impact, via a 60 percent reduction in transactional fraud from chargebacks and a 90 percent reduction in fraud that comes at the point of account origination.
Online Security: What’s Behind Google’s Secretive Ad-Blocking Policy?
When Google decided in May to stop accepting online ads for short-term, ultra-high-cost personal loans known as payday loans, some people wondered whether the company was acting more like a publisher exercising editorial control than a supposedly neutral search engine.
Now that Google’s policy has gone into effect, it’s worth asking: To what extent should the company be a gatekeeper, judging which online ads are okay and which are not? And if the world’s largest Internet search engine is going to be selective about accepting ads, where does it draw the line?
The same questions could be applied to Microsoft and Yahoo, which refuse to carry ads for certain types of sensitive content (but still advertise payday loans). Baidu, the world’s second-largest search engine, has been grappling with these issues since earlier this year, when its practice of promoting medical listings without vetting them sparked outrage over a tragedy: a young man with cancer died after receiving an ineffective treatment from a hospital he found through a Baidu ad. The outcry prompted an investigation by China’s Internet regulator, which ordered Baidu to review its ads and remove any that promote unlicensed medical providers.
University of Maryland law professor Frank Pasquale says Google has tried to have it both ways: sometimes it portrays itself as a simple utility and a mere conduit of its customers’ ads, but other times it presents itself as a content provider that can and should exercise control over the ads it shows.
“Whenever Google is accused of abetting or enabling copyright infringement or defamation, it says, ‘We’re just [connecting people] like the phone company does, and you wouldn’t sue the phone company over this,’” says Pasquale. “But when people say, ‘If you’re a common carrier [utility], you should take all ads,’ Google will say, ‘No, we’re like a newspaper and we should have carte blanche over what we publish.’”
With payday loan ads, Google is characterizing itself as the watchful online guardian. The company has said it banned the ads to protect its users because “research has shown that these loans can result in unaffordable payment and high default rates.” (Google declined to comment for this story beyond saying that it constantly reviews its AdWords policies and updates them ”when necessary.”)
Google also seems to have been influenced by advocacy from a large coalition of civil rights, digital rights, and financial reform organizations. In late 2015, the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights and other groups sent Google reports detailing abuses that often accompany payday loans—among them fraud, unauthorized transactions, and long-term indebtedness. “We said, ‘This is a problem, and we want to talk to you about this,’” says Alvaro Bedoya, the executive director of Georgetown Law’s Center on Privacy & Technology, who participated in the outreach campaign. “There were long conversations with Google and a lot of bringing this research to their attention over the course of a couple of months.”
An ongoing inquiry into payday lending by the U.S. government’s Consumer Financial Protection Bureau may have further heightened Google’s interest in predatory lending practices.
Consumers might not realize it, but Google—and other ad-supported search engines—have been making editorial decisions about the types of ads they will carry for years. These companies won the right to reject ads they consider objectionable in 2007, when a Delaware district court ruled that constitutional free-speech guarantees don’t apply to search engines since they are for-profit companies and not “state actors.” The decision cited earlier cases that upheld newspapers’ rights to decide which ads to run.
Google currently prohibits ads for “dangerous,” “dishonest,” and “offensive” content, such as recreational drugs, weapons, and tobacco products; fake documents and academic cheating services; and hate-group paraphernalia. Google also restricts ads for content it deems legally or culturally sensitive, such as adult-oriented, gambling-related, and political content; alcoholic beverages; and health care and medicine. It may require additional information from these advertisers and limit placement to certain geographical locations.
Legal experts aren’t uniformly comfortable with Google’s taking on this role. While the University of Maryland’s Pasquale supports Google’s decision to add online payday loans to its restricted list as a benefit to consumers, University of Connecticut law professor James Kwak thinks Google is overreaching. Given the company’s dominance—it is estimated to have a 55 percent share of the $86.2 billion global market for search ads—Kwak thinks Google is essentially exercising regulatory authority when it bans certain ads and should be subject to scrutiny on the grounds that it might be violating First Amendment protections on free speech.
“The question is, ‘When does something have so much control over the dissemination of ideas that it should be treated as part of the government?’” says Kwak. “This is a company with enormous power that’s using that power to affect other industries.”
Now that Google has agreed to ban a category of ads, partly on the basis of community advocacy, will people expect it to block other ads that cause public harm? And since Google has committed to policing its payday loan ads, shouldn’t it take responsibility for other potentially unethical ads that it runs?
Consider for-profit colleges and services for relief of student debt. Google has not instituted special regulations for such ads even though both entities are widely believed to capitalize on consumers’ confusion and hurt more people than they help.
Logan Koepke, an analyst at Upturn, a technology law and policy consultancy that published an influential 2015 report about online payday loans, thinks Google’s decision may set a precedent for consumer advocates to seek to shape companies’ ad policies.
Some people aren’t comfortable with Google as the final arbiter on these topics. Kwak, for one, would like to see greater transparency surrounding such decisions. He suggests that Google hire a group of economists or social scientists to identify deceptive products being advertised online, or perhaps work with the CFPB to determine the most exploitative financial products.
Pasquale also favors some form of public or government scrutiny to ensure that such decisions are being made in the public interest and not for commercial reasons favoring Google. That’s relevant to the payday loan issue since some people have speculated that the ban will benefit LendUp, an online lender that describes itself as a “payday loan alternative” and is funded by Google Ventures, the investment division of Google’s parent company, Alphabet.
LendUp has pointed out, though, that its ads will be subject to Google’s ad ban, just like those of other lenders.
Bedoya understands why Google’s clout and reach make people uneasy, but he says, “The reality is, these companies had tremendous power before this decision and will have tremendous power after it. The key is to encourage them to use their position in a way that’s not harmful.”
Phishing and Other Suspicious Emails by Oakmere Road
Phishing refers to an email that attempts to fraudulently acquire personal information from you, such as your Apple ID, password and/or credit card information. On the surface, the email may appear to be from a legitimate company or individual, but it's not.
As a general rule, never send credit card information, account passwords, or extensive personal information in an email unless you verify that the recipient is who they claim to be. Many companies have policies that state they will never solicit such information from customers by email.
If you are concerned that your Apple ID or other Apple accounts may have been compromised, please refer to Apple ID Security below.
Reporting Suspected Phishing Attempts
If you receive what you believe to be a phishing email purporting to be from Apple, please send it to reportphishing@apple.com, a monitored email inbox, which does not generate individual email replies.
Forwarding the message with complete header information provides Apple with important information. To do this in OS X Mail, select the message and choose Forward As Attachment from the Message menu. For other email applications or webmail based services, consult your provider’s support information to determine how to forward messages with complete headers.
Additional Information Regarding Phishing
For more information about identifying legitimate emails from the iTunes Store, see Identifying legitimate emails from the iTunes Store.
For more information about identifying “phishing” emails, see Identifying fraudulent ‘phishing’ emails.
Reporting Other Suspicious Email
To report spam or other suspicious emails that you have received in your iCloud.com, me.com or mac.com inbox, please send them to abuse@icloud.com.
To report spam or other suspicious messages that you have received through iMessage, please send them to imessage.spam@apple.com with the requested information.
For information about best practices in Apple ID security, see Apple ID: Security and your Apple ID.
For information about two-step verification for Apple ID, see Apple ID: Frequently asked questions about two-step verification for Apple ID.
If you believe that your Apple ID has been compromised, please visit Apple ID to change your password immediately.
If you need additional help, contact Apple Support for assistance:
- Apple ID Support
- iCloud Support
- iTunes Store Support
- iPhoto Support
- Apple Store Support
Oakmere Road: Phishing attacks on the rise
There has been a notable escalation in phishing attacks in 2016, according to a new report from the Anti-Phishing Working Group (APWG). It noted that there have been more phishing attacks during the the first quarter of this year, “than at any other time in history”.
There was a huge spike in phishing activity between October 2015 and March 2016, with incidents rising by a massive 250%, the study highlighted.
“We always see a surge in phishing during the holiday season, but the number of phishing sites kept going up from December into the spring of 2016,” commented Greg Aaron, a senior research fellow at APWG and vice-president of the iThreat Cyber Group.
“The sustained increase into 2016 shows phishers launching more sites, and is cause for concern.”
Phishing is a tactic used by cybercriminals and fraudsters to secure sensitive information from people. Deceptive emails, texts and instant messaging alerts – to name but a few – are sent to potential victims encouraging them to hand over their data.
The fraudulent messaging often looks and sounds authentic. Interestingly, as the authors of the paper state, phishing attacks are increasingly more aggressive. For example, keyloggers have been a notable feature in attacks in 2016, used to “target specific information and organizations”.
The authors of the report also touched upon the growing threat posed by ransomware. As with phishing, the attacks have demonstrated a more aggressive streak.
“The threat space continues to expand despite the best efforts of industry, government and law enforcement,” observed Peter Cassidy, co-founder and secretary general of the APWG.
Oakmere Road: Phishing and Other Suspicious Emails
Phishing refers to an email that attempts to fraudulently acquire personal information from you, such as your Apple ID, password and/or credit card information. On the surface, the email may appear to be from a legitimate company or individual, but it's not.
As a general rule, never send credit card information, account passwords, or extensive personal information in an email unless you verify that the recipient is who they claim to be. Many companies have policies that state they will never solicit such information from customers by email.
If you are concerned that your Apple ID or other Apple accounts may have been compromised, please refer to Apple ID Security below.
Reporting Suspected Phishing Attempts
If you receive what you believe to be a phishing email purporting to be from Apple, please send it to reportphishing@apple.com, a monitored email inbox, which does not generate individual email replies.
Forwarding the message with complete header information provides Apple with important information. To do this in OS X Mail, select the message and choose Forward As Attachment from the Message menu. For other email applications or webmail based services, consult your provider’s support information to determine how to forward messages with complete headers.
Additional Information Regarding Phishing
For more information about identifying legitimate emails from the iTunes Store, see Identifying legitimate emails from the iTunes Store.
For more information about identifying “phishing” emails, see Identifying fraudulent ‘phishing’ emails.
Reporting Other Suspicious Email
To report spam or other suspicious emails that you have received in your iCloud.com, me.com or mac.com inbox, please send them to abuse@icloud.com.
To report spam or other suspicious messages that you have received through iMessage, please send them to imessage.spam@apple.com with the requested information.
For information about best practices in Apple ID security, see Apple ID: Security and your Apple ID.
For information about two-step verification for Apple ID, see Apple ID: Frequently asked questions about two-step verification for Apple ID.
If you believe that your Apple ID has been compromised, please visit Apple ID to change your password immediately.
If you need additional help, contact Apple Support for assistance:
- Apple ID Support
- iCloud Support
- iTunes Store Support
- iPhoto Support
- Apple Store Support
Public Country-By-Country Reporting / Corporate tax transparency by International Financial Securities Regulatory Commission
With the rules on country-by-country reporting, the EU has created a framework where businesses in the extractive and logging industries have to publish their payments to governments relating to the exploitation of natural resources. This will assist populations of resource-rich countries to hold their governments accountable for these proceeds.
In addition, a country-by-country reporting is also required from EU credit institutions (banks). This will ensure that trust in the financial sector is regained. On 12 April 2016, the Commission adopted a proposal for a Directive which imposes on EU and non-EU multinational groups the publication of a yearly report on the profit and tax paid and other information.
Extractive and logging industries: sectoral Country-by country reporting
In the European Union, companies with activities in the extractive and forestry must disclose the payments they make to governments on a country-by-country basis and, where appropriate on project-by-project basis. This enhances government accountability and facilitates the adoption of the Extractive Industry Transparency Initiative by countries.
The International Financial Securities Regulatory Commission was established to promote investor confidence in the securities and capital markets by providing more structure and government oversight.
Gantz Associates: Foreclosure Prevention
“The administration of justice is the firmest pillar of government.” – George Washington
Clients call us every day, in tears over a convoluted and confusing mortgage loan modification process. They are in paperwork hell. They feel like they have been taken advantage of, lied to and suckered into a situation they never wanted.
Gantz Associates is the best firm in Michigan to guide clients through the awful process of foreclosure. We find solutions by assessing all the information of a client’s financial situation and work with lenders toward effective resolutions that benefit our clients.
