My favourite new word is 'common sense'

Submitted by chris on Fri, 12/21/2007 - 15:48

This video clip is gold. It’s not jewel encrusted and be the kind of gold that will make the women in your life happy. Nor will it give you pleasure to look at it, in all of its sparkly glory.

However it’s one of those priceless comments that really makes you wonder at the current state of affairs. It dates back to June of 2007, but I was only made aware of it a couple of days ago.

Here’s some background. We have a current affairs show in New Zealand called ‘Close Up’. It’s the kind of show you can expect to see just after the evening news. Generally these shows lack the sensationalism you would expect to see in a 20/20 type of program, but none the less, they don’t always get things right.

This particular piece is a segment about merchants being ripped off by stolen Credit Cards and having to foot the bill. Fair enough, these can be dangerous times with Credit Card numbers being regularly traded over the Internet. If you are a merchant, selling your goods and accepting Credit Cards as a form of payment, it’s probably worth the watch for that alone. Where it gets a bit screwy is towards the end, when Maarten Kleintjes is interviewed about the issue. Maarten Kleintjes is the National Manager of the eCrime Laboratory for New Zealand Police.

Now something I need to make clear also, is that this entire segment is also intended to be only from a merchant perspective. But this issue of perspective is not explained particularly well and many people sitting at home would pick up on the comments that were made and consider them the safe and reasonable alternatives.

So here is the clip, 8 minutes 50 seconds, Maarten appears in the latter half :

 

 

 

 

Here is Maartens advice in summary form :

 

  • As a merchant, avoid using Credit Cards entirely, the risk is too great.
  • If the purchaser states they will only pay for the goods using Credit Card, don’t proceed with the sale.
  • He cannot say for certain that if you are unsure about the sale, if you can ring your Bank first to determine the legitimacy. Surprising given he clearly he must have an indepth knowledge of Credit Card systems to indicate they shouldn’t be trusted.
  • Try using other services like Money Orders, Western Union is his example.

 

Ah yes Maarten, Money Order services like Western Union are far safer to use. </sarcasm>

To his credit he does say that when he personally used Western Union he took the risk as the purchaser. But they still explain the whole situation poorly and the end result is a lot of confusion.

Perhaps Maarten could take some time, get back into reality and before he goes off making significant policy and procedure decisions for New Zealand eCrime, he should learn what’s going on here.

There’s another service, it’s called Escrow. It’s specifically intended for exactly these kinds of high value sales. Yes fake Escrow companies do exist, but the simple solution is to always choose your own Escrow company and not use one ‘recommended’ by the seller or purchaser. I dunno, let’s pick one at random....ummm.... how about www.escrow.com

If Internet Fraud groups, and volunteers all around the world say to purchasers to trust Credit Cards first, as that minimises their risk, then someone like Maarten gets up and says for merchants to not trust Credit Cards at all, what on earth are people supposed to think or do ? It was an unrealistic and unreasonable suggestion, and I know that there are many folk all around the world, folk who volunteer their time to help combat Internet Fraud who would disagree with what was suggested.

Previously I’ve always held the belief that policing New Zealand eCrime is evolving in the right direction, I held the belief that there was hope for New Zealanders like me that our Police would be able to respond correctly and appropriately to eCrime in all its forms. However now we must wonder what condition things are in, and whether the Police is simply not educated because of a lack of funds, or because cyber fraud is not considered as important by the decision makers.

 

Thumbs up to Anna for

Submitted by Susan (not verified) on Sun, 12/23/2007 - 07:11.
Thumbs up to Anna for speaking out and not feeling embarrassed -- thumbs down to Kleintjes for a confusing message and summary. There's certainly a risk for merchants in accepting credit cards. But the risk for consumers to use Western Union is far, far greater. Take a look at fake companies (escrow, shipping, courier, barrister, etc) -- the vast majority require money transfer by Western Union, with a small percentage also offering the possibility of wire transfer to a bank account. Neither of these methods of payment has any means of recovery if you realize a transaction is fraudulent. What's more, there's not necessarily additional security in overseas cash transactions. Here's a hypothetical: Mr. Criminal contacts Mrs. Computer Merchant and asks to buy $2000 worth of high-end electronics to be shipped overseas. Mrs. Merchant, having recently watched this TV show, decides to ask for Western Union as payment. Mr. Criminal has been stringing along a scam with Mr. Victim, and instructs Victim to send $2000 cash to Criminal's "associate" Merchant. Criminal gets the goods, Victim loses his money, and Merchant looks like the guilty party when the police come looking for the recipient of that fraudulent transfer. (Mrs. Merchant does avoid chargeback fees from the credit card company, I'll admit.) This is far less common than credit card fraud, but scammers try whatever they can to steal goods and cash.