Agreement between bankers and consumers on means of payment fraud

Payment players, foremost among which are banks, and consumer ociations have agreed on 13 recommendations to prevent and manage cases of payment method fraudannounced Tuesday the Bank of France. Their observation is shared: the strong authentication required by banks to ensure that the user is who he claims to be, via connection to a mobile application or sending a code by SMS for example, is not infallible.

This type of authentication, despite its high level of security, “should not systematically lead to a refusal of reimburtfrom the bank, such as “it is too often the case“, underlined during a press conference Julien Lasalle, of the direction of the studies and supervision of the payments of the Bank of France. In the event of a victim coming forward, it is now up to the banking establishment to investigate the file in less than 24 hours. If he is unable to conclude that the fraud comes from the customer himself or that the latter has shown gross negligence, he must proceed to the immediate reimburt.

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Spoofing technique

“We are strengthening the fight against fraud and we are facilitating reimburt procedures, even when strong authentication has been carried out“, summed up the Minister of the Economy Bruno Le Maire, quoted in a press release. When the payment has not been the subject of strong authentication, such as for low-value online payments or outside the European Union, banking institutions are invited to reimburse without delay the transactions disputed by customers. .

The objective of the 13 recommendations, which also relate to prevention and customer information, “is to reduce the +grey zone+ on the essment of the +unauthorized+ nature of a disputed transaction“, explains the Observatory for the security of means of payment, a body chaired by the Banque de France. Adopted at the end of April, these recommendations already apply and will be supervised by the banking watchdog, the Prudential Control and Resolution Authority (ACPR).

For all card payments on the internet (including payments made to foreign sites by French cardholders), the fraud rate was less than 0.2% in 2021, at its lowest historical level. But the rise of internet payments is whetting the appetite of fraudsters who often resort to the technique of “spoofing» : they usurp the phone number of the customer service of the bank and, thanks to their insurance and good information, achieve their ends.