Fraud in the prepaid card industry

And we're back! James Nurse, Head of Fraud and Payments at Pockit, joins Gerry to have a chat about fraud in the pre-paid card industry. Pockit provides straightforward and fair, alternative bank accounts to their customers who have struggled to get an account with the high street banks. Their mission is to be the world's most inclusive bank, which means their sign up and on-boarding process tends to have fewer checks than the traditional banks.

This obviously exposes Pockit to potential fraud risk so they use a plethora of verification checks, technologies and tactics to minimise the risk; or as James refers to it, the Swiss Cheese Model. By layering checks such as eKYC & standard 2 + 2 matches across 2 data sources, with their rules engine that surfaces suspicious behaviour to the fraud team, Pockit is able to keep the fraudsters out.

Their biggest saving grace however is 3D Secure. Most of their customers use another card to top up their Pockit card, so sending all of these transactions through 3DS means the liability is shifted away from Pockit. James acknowledges that this might impact conversion slightly, but explains that this check is essential since they are a financial institution and therefore they need to make sure the money coming in is from a legitimate source.

To hear more about the types of fraudster behaviours Pockit sees and what James thinks about collaboration in the prepaid card industry to combat fraud, listen to the whole episode!

You can listen above, find it on iTunes or visit our Soundcloud page. Enjoy!

To learn more about PSD2 and SCA visit our insights page.