The Payment Source Blog

In last week's blog, I talked about the different types of prepaid fraud. This week I will discuss how to identify the fraudsters behind these scams.

Over the past few years there has been a shift in the market when it comes to fraud. Five or more years ago, you saw messages everywhere about keeping your debit card safe, and to never give your banking or credit card information to anyone. But no one really focused on prepaid products. The fraudsters were too busy working on their next debit skimming plan or credit card scam. Then one day, we started receiving calls from our retailers asking why we didn’t cancel the prepaid voucher they printed like we said we would? We quickly realized that fraudsters have been calling our locations impersonating our support team and stealing PIN information from vouchers. That is when the shift began to take place from traditional debit and credit fraud to a focus on the prepaid world.

Over the past few years, you may have heard some chatter about the growth and popularity of the prepaid payment cards in Canada. It’s not surprising.

In Canada, we may not have Black Friday officially - but that doesn’t stop would be shoppers from taking advantage of the deals on both sides of the border during the season.  In 2016, Black Friday continued to gain momentum in Canada with consumer spending up almost 6% from last year (see source). In fact, Black Friday was the biggest day for retailers in 2016 in terms of sales volume (see source) - which marks a huge shift from previously seen retail patterns in Canada where Boxing Day ruled.