Online Retailers Cruising Tor To Hunt For Fraudsters 188
Daniel_Stuckey writes "This week, the verification company Service Objects announced a new tool to help websites detect 'suspicious' visitors using Tor and other anonymous proxies. Its updated DOTS IP Address Validation product identifies 'suspicious' discrepancies between the user's home location and the location of the IP address the order's coming from. It joins a handful of other tools on the market promising Tor-detection for retailers. It's a logical strategy: If you're trying to buy something with a stolen credit card, you're obviously going to want to block your real identity and location while doing it. But it also raises the question of whether targeting anonymity services to hunt out fraudsters could have chilling effects for harmless Tor users trying to protect their privacy online—particularly this year in light of the NSA-spying scandal."
Re:LOL wut? (Score:5, Funny)
"But it also raises the question of whether targeting anonymity services to hunt out fraudsters could have chilling effects for harmless Tor users trying to protect their privacy online"
Umm.. the user is ordering something using their name, credit card, and address. They are not going to use Tor to protect their anonymity.
But you certainly have a crowd that likes the idea of tor and has their browser always configured to use it. I don't think that raising the risk level associated with a transaction based on the client using tor is unreasonable. If this were a brick and mortar store, they'd probably be a little bit wary of doing a credit card sale to someone wearing a disguise that covered their face.
Also realize that this would only be one of many sanity checks employed. Is the shipping address to the address listed on the cc for example. The credit card company also checks where the card was used, for things like buying gas at 1pm and then buying it again at 2pm 100 miles away. They also consider the type of merchandise as online purchase of electronics is rife with fraud, but very few people use a stolen card to buy socks.
Making a credit card purchase online via TOR is like going into a shop to buy something using a credit card WITH A STOCKING OVER YOUR FACE.