Securing the Mobile Wallet Experience

Securing the Mobile Wallet Experience

Last month, Al Pascual, senior vice president, research director and head of fraud & security at Javelin, authored an article, “Mobile Wallet Fraud: This is Just the Beginning,” as part of our ongoing conversation on this topic and in conjunction with a recent report, white paper and webinar on the subject. In that content, Pascual raises awareness of the projected growth in mobile wallet adoption, forecasted to grow to just under 90 million by 2019. However, for consumers yet to adopt mobile wallets, concern for security is cited as the primary reason. Pascual also points out the opportunity for fraudsters to enroll compromised card-not-present credentials onto a mobile wallet as the transition to EMV diminishes the opportunity to commit fraud at the point of sale.

In the last few weeks, there have been an increasing number of news stories on additional mobile wallet introductions to the market, including Walmart Pay and Microsoft Wallet for retail transactions. Even Amazon has joined the list of digital wallets enabling consumers to make payments to the federal government.

As more mobile wallet options become available and consumer adoption continues to increase, securing the mobile wallet experience at the point of card provisioning is essential to mitigate fraud. According to a September 2015 bulletin from the U.S. Secret Service and the PCI Security Standards Council, there is a steady increase in fraudsters exploiting vulnerabilities in the account provisioning and verification process for mobile wallets.

In the payments space, the vulnerabilities fall into two general categories:

  1. Theft of payment credentials; and
  2. Falsification of payment credentials.

As a result, mobile wallet issuers are challenged to secure the registration process and issuance of payment credentials. A strengthened verification process is needed to identify and stop account takeover attempts and fraud, and at the same time ensure the customer has a streamlined experience when initiating and using a mobile wallet.

Early Warning has been focused on this very objective; improving identity and payments risk management by reducing mobile transaction vulnerabilities all while providing a seamless experience for the consumer.

Now you can improve card provisioning for mobile wallets by:

  • Leveraging consortium intelligence to authenticate card data whether debit or credit;
  • Gaining real-time connectivity to Mobile Network Operators to validate device ownership and mobile account status;
  • Improving the customer experience through more advanced authentication; and
  • Protecting your call center from call spoofing and social engineering.

 

About the Author:

Jim Mortensen is Vice President of the Identity Solutions product line for Early Warning. Early Warning is Creating the Future of PaymentsTM. Mr Mortensen is responsible for developing and delivering new identity solutions, inclusive of solutions for mobile wallets, as well as managing their overall product lifecycle.

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