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ReadersSpeak

The phishing scourge However, due to shorter staffing from
Dec. 23 through 25, the merchant was
an Powers sent in the following about phishing attacks that disrupted not notified until their customers
sales during the year-end holidays, causing extreme upset for mer- began calling them on Dec. 26,
chants she serves. "I am an MLS and an independent contractor. Two unable to process online sales. The
J of my merchants were victims of phishing attacks in December: one merchant then contacted our help
on Dec. 23 was for 20,000 fraudulent auth attempts. The TID was cloned, and desk, who conferenced in AuthNet
a fake account was created to test credit card account numbers ‒ or so it was to have the SIC changed. I think
explained to me. the resolution was prompt. But the
merchant is ANGRY they were
"I am looking for more info on phishing in our industry. My processor caught it not contacted on Dec. 23 when the
within hours, shut down the account and created a different SIC. phishing was discovered.

"I did not see any recent articles on
phishing when I searched The Green
Sheet site. Our tech staff was called
to work on their laptops from home
Dec, 24, so I don't think another
processor would have handled it any
better than we did."
Jan Powers
Independent Merchant Services
Specialist since 1997

Jan,

Thank you for recounting this
upsetting experience. Protecting
our payment systems from
phishing and other attacks is of
paramount importance. It looks
like you did an excellent job in
handling the event. Here's a link
to one of our most recent articles
on phishing: www.greensheet.com/
emagazine.php?story_id=5911&search_
string=phishing. Additional articles
that mention phishing can be found
here: www.greensheet.com/search.
php?node=processSearch.

We will delve further into how the
payments industry can address these
and other types of attacks since data
security and uninterrupted service
are critical not only to merchants,
but also to payment businesses and
the entire financial system. Expect
further coverage as we endeavor to
stay abreast of developments.
Have you been victimized?

Have your merchants been attacked
by criminal hackers? Tell us about
this or other compelling issues at
greensheet@greensheet.com.

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