Credit cards continue to be the easiest and most convenient way to shop online. A passport to international purchases, cards provide a one-click payment solution, allowing funds to move around the globe.
This has fuelled and facilitated the e-commerce revolution, and will in all likelihood continue to be the way we pay online for many years to come. Schalk Nolte, CEO of Entersect, says: “This very simplicity has allowed fraudsters to cash in on the anonymity of the Internet. All that is required is access to a few details on the credit card, all available in plain sight, to enable fraudulent online transactions.” According to ITWeb, South African “card not present” fraud increased 77% this year, costing the banking sector R142.8 million.
The Entersect software prevents both “man in the middle” fraudster attacks on online banking and effectively prevents fraudulent credit card transactions, using the user's mobile phone as a second factor to authenticate the transaction. Nolte explains: “The simplicity of the software for the end-user has created worldwide interest in the Stellenbosch-based company as users are typically not interested in complex password solutions.”
Once a card purchase is sent through to the bank, the message containing the transaction details are relayed instantly to the customer's mobile device. The customer can then choose to either “accept”, or “reject” the purchase. The response is sent back to the issuing bank, and relayed to the merchant using the Visa 3-D Secure infrastructure.
The software provides a number of fallback solutions based on user connectivity ie, SMS transaction authentication, USSD transaction authentication and OTP generation on the phone. A key benefit is that users travelling internationally are able to continue banking even when they use an alternate international SIM card.
Nolte says: “We are extremely proud to be one of only a handful of companies, internationally, accredited by Visa. Our software is being integrated into local and international banks' infrastructure, and shortly South African consumers will have first-hand experience of the Entersect solution.”
