Early Warning scheme chases online cheats

War on credit card fraud hots up

The battle against credit card fraud is gaining ammunition with the launch of an online information swapping scheme to catch online cheats.

The Early Warning scheme is for any firms that do business online and allows members to collate and check information on questionable transactions and known fraudsters. Searches are defined by email address, IP address, postcode or names. Members also receive email alerts about all new frauds.

According to research from Forrester, European online sales are set to reach a record €7.6bn this Christmas, almost twice as much as last year.

Andrew Goodwill, managing director of Early Warning, said the not-for-profit scheme already has 450 members and is growing by about 12 members daily. He said it had saved members more than £300,000 since its launch just weeks ago.

"We have all sorts of members, ranging from carrier companies to major retailers, and I think the scheme would definitely appeal to resellers," he said.

New members will have to pay a joining fee of £40 to cover mounting costs, Goodwill said.

Glenn Morrison, managing director of storage and memory specialist Upgrade Options, said: "Companies that use this scheme shouldn't think they are entirely protected. There are countless ways of being defrauded and the worst thing a company can do is to become complacent. They must still be extremely cautious."

Nick Culley, product marketing director at distributor Midwich, added: "Although the percentage of business that we transact over the internet is small, a lot of our customers do business online, and this seems an excellent resource to use in the battle against fraudsters."