Companies Boosting Fraud Prevention In Wake of Data Breaches

With card payments fraud on the rise, many organizations are now adopting additional security measures to protect themselves, according to the 2014 AFP Payments Fraud and Control Survey sponsored by J.P. Morgan. Although the percentage of organizations in the survey that experienced some type of fraud remained steady at 60% from last year’s survey, more of that fraud was occurring through debit and credit cards, with 43% of the organizations victimized by fraudsters reporting card fraud, up form 29% last year.

And last year’s data breaches, which are likely to lead to more card fraud, have spurred organizations to take action: 63% of the respondents that they have added new security measures since last year’s data breaches or are planning to do so.

The majority of respondents in the survey (72%) expected that switching to EMV would have a positive impact on the growing threat of card fraud, with 20% expecting a major reduction as a result of EMV.

[For More On Last Year’s Retailer Data Breaches: Breaking Down the Impact of the Target Breach]

Check fraud is still the most common type of fraud experienced by organizations, the survey of 449 financial professionals working in 15 different industry verticals found. Of those organizations that had a fraud event, 82% said they had experienced check fraud. The most common type of check fraud, cited by 62% of those that had been subject to check fraud, was “counterfeiting by altering the MICR line on the check.”

The most common fraud prevention methods being used by organizations in the survey were conducting daily reconciliations of their payments (74%) and auditing and strengthening internal processes (73%).

Jonathan Camhi has been an associate editor with Bank Systems & Technology since 2012. He previously worked as a freelance journalist in New York City covering politics, health and immigration, and has a master's degree from the City University of New York's Graduate School ... View Full Bio