Another day, another phishing scam

I've seen hundreds of phishing emails over the past couple years. Some brilliantly written; others that wouldn't fool the clichéd blonde in a bar.

The good ones can be tricky to recognize: they seem to come from a valid service provider, are exact replicas of a real communication, and I reluctantly admit, are rather professionally done.

The bad ones are just that: BAD - Spelling mistakes, grammatical errors, broken images, inconsistent messages. I even received one branded as if from Bank A, but with a call to action for Bank B. Very confusing, and hardly likely to dupe anyone.

But yet these scams must have some level of success or the crooks would hang up their HTML and look elsewhere for easy targets.

The problem is that so many Internet users are just that: easy targets. Some believe that because they don't understand "technology", they can't arm themselves against digital-media fraud. In reality, many of the techniques used to recognize a phishing attempt, have more to do with common sense, than with being an Internet super-user.

The only way to avoid being a victim of phishing is to educate yourself.

How can you tell if an email is fraudulent?

• Fraudsters don’t know who you are. 99.9% of email phishing is “spray and pray”, so the email is actually not directed at you personally. They happen to have your email address, but they have no other personal information about you. Don’t respond or interact with any email which is not addressed to you personally in the body of the email.
• Fraudsters want your personal information. The purpose of a phishing email is to get information from you that enables access to your money. A phishing email will ask for your personal security information, such as your ATM pin, or your credit card number and pin. Banks will never send an email requesting your ATM or card pin. Any communication that asks you for your internet banking login or password, or anything to do with an ATM is a scam.
• Fraudsters pray on ignorance. A phishing email is designed to look real, but there are always ways to recognize fraud. Online commerce, internet banking, email statements are all the way of the future. Which means that, unfortunately, scams will also be part of our future online experience. Get informed. Don’t be a passive Internet user.

Use common sense.

If the content of an email seems too good to be true, then it probably is. Be cautious about opening any attachment or downloading any files, regardless of who sent them. Don’t email your personal, financial or password information, EVER.

Stay on top of announcements from your Bank about their email communication and Internet Banking policies. Banks regularly update their fraud notices, as well as provide fraud detection software and tips on how to avoid becoming a victim.

If you do receive a suspicious email, take the time to report it to your Bank’s fraud division – all relevant information in this regard, as well as contact details should be on your Bank’s website.

Alison Treadaway
striata.com

eBilling horror stories! Do you have one?

An interesting story appeared in my Google Alerts a little while ago regarding an eBilling problem in Texas. What made it interesting to me was that the company involved – a water utility – had done many good things with regards to their eBilling, but fell at the last hurdle and ended up disconnecting an innocent customer. Not good for public relations! The full story is here.

In brief, when eBilling was introduced the utility sent out paper and eBills to the customer for a few months, before defaulting her to eBilling. In general, this process improves the eBilling adoption rate dramatically - reducing paper and postage costs and is good practice – as long as you know the customer is receiving the eBills! It turns out that this particular customer's email address was 2 years out of date, and she never received any eBill or notice that she was being defaulted to eBilling. To make matters worse, the utility noticed that the eBills weren't being paid and so occasionally sent out paper bills to "catch up", which were received and paid on time. But they then continued with eBilling until they disconnected her…

eBilling is not just about sending electronic bills…

Clearly whilst the eBilling platform was probably successfully sending out eBills, the required read-receipt and delivery reporting wasn't in place. Clearly the processes dealing with exceptions weren't water-tight.

In a similar story but much closer to home; my friend got a call from her bank today telling her that payments toward her new credit-card – issued in September – had never been received and over US$400 in late fees was now due. It turns out that she thought she'd set up a direct debit payment (and hadn't – so that's her fault), but had also signed up for eStatements. These eStatements necessitated following a link back to a website and a log in to view the statement, and she'd just never bothered to do so as it was too much trouble (and hey, it was being paid automatically anyway, wasn't it…?) Did the bank not know she'd never viewed an eStatement? Should alarm bells not have started ringing after the first credit-card bill wasn't paid rather than 4 months later? Seems not!

The poor water customer in Texas had to pay a substantial reconnection fee but thankfully for my friend, her late fees were waived. However in both instances the customer ended up inconvenienced, disgruntled and dissatisfied with the electronic billing process.

Both of these stories show how the delivery of an eBill is only the start of the eBilling process, not the end of it! Convenience is critical to ensure eBills or eStatements are actually viewed. Monitoring of delivery and read-receipts is required, as is having automated processes set up to deal with issues. An eBill bounces? Then automatically send the customer an SMS… No reply to that? Then send a paper bill and get the call-centre to follow-up with the customer. And before eBilling begins, the adoption process has to be fail-safe but optimized to ensure the highest possible paper suppression rates.

Is it all starting to sound a bit more complicated than just attaching a PDF bill to an email? Then speak to the experts who have been doing it for 10 years…

Keith Russell
www.striata.com

Do you have what your customers want…. Mobile eBilling?

I can't think of any other consumer technology news that has been more eagerly anticipated in the US recently, than Verizon announcing that they will be introducing the iPhone in February 2011. While one analyst report estimates that 25 million Verizon iPhones could be activated in 2011, Verizon Wireless is conservatively predicting 11 million new iPhone users this year. On a global scale, the introduction of the CDMA version of the iPhone would open up approximately 550 million potential new customers (134 million in India alone), according to the CDMA Development Group. A massive gauntlet has just been thrown down to developers of Android devices as well.

The ramifications for all of this on eBilling are HUGE!

Whether you're an avid smartphone user (like me), an occasional mobile internet user, or someone who only uses their phone for calls and SMS text messages, the allure of the smartphone is undeniable. Opening the floodgates to the web and more importantly, email (by far the most used consumer technology application) means that your customers who, today receive paper bills, will be far more accessible.

Mobile eBilling and the World Wide Web

But wait… is your website configured and optimized for mobile users? Or will they just see a very small, unreadable version of their eBill? As companies desperately try to convert their customers to paperless communications in a bid to reduce costs, are they paying enough attention to how consumers connect to the web?

Most banks and billers have built their portals without this in mind. Have you ever tried to log-in and view / pay a bill from your phone? The whole experience is not for the technology or security averse, especially when the same exercise usually involves 10 steps and many mouse-clicks to complete on your regular computer screen.

I'm not suggesting for a second that the personal computer is becoming redundant, but isn't the whole point of being able to check emails and connect to the net from the palm of your hand, intended to make your life more efficient? So that you have more time for the things you want to do (Unfortunately paying bills doesn't often fall into this category.)

Striata's new mobile one-click payment solution

How cool would it be if you could view a PDF of your bill right on your phone, and tap your screen to make an instant payment, then file the bill in an email folder, all in less than 60 seconds? Talk about convenience! (not to mention billers getting paid quicker).

This is exactly what Striata launched at FinovateEurope this week. Striata's new mobile one-click payment solution is an industry first, enabling bill recipients to see how much is owed and conveniently make an instant one-click payment directly from any internet enabled mobile device. More good news: it doesn't require billers to spend anything on optimizing their portals for mobile users.

Striata continues to blaze a trail of innovation in paperless communication solutions. For more than a decade, we have had a very clear focus on providing both individual (B2C) and commercial (B2B) consumers with more convenience and ease of access to handling tasks that to date are predominately paper based.

Coincidentally, in a recent research report by InfoTrends entitled The Future of Electronic Bill Presentment & Payment in North America, 2010, companies surveyed said the most effective strategy for driving eBilling adoption was "marketing the convenience".

Isn't it time to put your money where your mouth is? Talk to a Striata specialist today about what enhancing customer convenience will do for your business.

Barrie Arnold
www.striata.com