Phishers are smart, but they can be outsmarted.

Visa takes action

Not only does phishing result in fraud and identity theft, it also undermines consumer confidence in online shopping and internet banking. As a leader in the payments industry, Visa takes phishing very seriously and is focused not just on shutting down phishing sites, but preventing phishing emails from ever reaching consumers worldwide. 
 
When the phishing fraud phenomenon first appeared, Visa:

• Helped pioneer third-party brand protection and phish detection technology
• Formed an internal team to investigate and shut down attackers
• Established an electronic mailbox as a single focus point to report phishing attacks: phishing@visa.com
• Partnered with an industry anti-fraud leader to monitor the Visa brand and detect phishing attacks
• Began regional user education and awareness campaigns

• Alerting/monitoring services
• Anti-spam/email sender validation
• Email message security
• Website validation
• Authentication solutions
• Anti-spyware tools

Key partnerships

Visa is heavily involved with industry partners, consortiums and law enforcement initiatives in providing immediate response to phishing attacks.   
 
When a fraudulent email or website is detected, Visa ensures that experts evaluate the incident quickly, determine the source of the email and initiate contact with the site owner and the ISP requesting that the site be shut down immediately.  Depending on the location of the ISP, the site can be taken down within two hours from detection. 
 
Visa is also a sponsor and an active participant in the Anti-Phishing Working Group (APWG), a global industry association providing a confidential forum to discuss phishing issues, trials and solutions, and access to a repository of phishing attacks. 
 
Visa has joined WholeSecurity, a leading security company, to launch The Phish Report Network - the internet’s first global anti-phishing aggregation service. The Phish Report Network allows any company being victimized by phishing attacks to report fraudulent websites to a central database immediately and securely.  
 
Companies subscribing to the Phish Report Network can then access the database or receive real-time notifications of known phishing sites and take action to block these bogus sites from their customers.  Microsoft, eBay and PayPal are also subscribers to the service.