The FinTech Modulr has launched Confirmation of Payee, a fraud prevention initiative spearheaded by Pay.UK.
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The feature provides an extra layer of defence to protect Modulr’s customers from malicious redirect payment fraud, also known as authorised push payment (APP) fraud. This is the second Modulr product launch to come out of its £10m grant from the Capability and Innovation Fund (CIF) under the RBS Alternative Remedies package. Modulr, an authorised electronic money institution, is the first non-bank or building society to join Confirmation of Payee.
APP fraud describes when a person is tricked into approving a payment to a fraudster’s account, through social engineering, manipulation or deceit. These scams cost businesses and consumers millions every year – and there’s often little recourse to get back stolen money.
That’s because with push payments, users enter the beneficiary’s details and there’s an assumption of trust before the payment is made – as opposed to pull payments such as card-present payments where the user is generally protected by chargeback rights, or Direct Debits.
With Confirmation of Payee, Modulr’s customers will have greater assurance their payments are going to the right recipient when they’re paying a business or personal account. Confirmation of Payee calls on Modulr’s API and automatically checks that the recipient’s name and account details match the information held by their payment service provider.
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