Threat of internet fraud puts many customers off

Lack of attention to online security is losing businesses potential customers on the web, according to a survey by ICM.

The survey, commissioned by Equifax Secure, found that 75% of internet users would shop online more often if there was a secure way to pay for goods.

Nearly half of respondents said they had abandoned a site when asked to enter their credit card details – 82% because they thought the site was not secure.

Less than a quarter of those surveyed thought the internet industry was doing enough to prevent consumers from possible credit card fraud on the web.

Entering credit card details on the web was seen to be the second most risky transaction among those surveyed, second only to leaving the credit card behind a bar.

Half of those surveyed were not aware that internet companies could provide products to protect customers from online credit card fraud.

Ian McKinnon, director of Equifax Secure said: "To address consumers' concerns, businesses must prioritise and take seriously their internet business security needs."

This year's KPMG information security study found that, despite 78% of businesses admitting the main obstacles to ecommerce were security concerns, these issues were the least well handled.

McKinnon said that internet fraud was 12 times higher than in the physical world.

He added that with online shopping in the UK predicted to exceed £10bn this year, "the problems are going to get worse unless companies secure their online infrastructures".

Equifax itself has launched a product called EIDVerifier. The customer consents to answer some online questions and EIDVerifier compares and analyses the information given against given databases and other consumer and business information sources to check that the person is who they say they are.