The Times - UK (2022-01-19)

the times | Wednesday January 19 2022 43

Business

Five companies including Mastercard
have been handed fines totalling more
than £33 million for infringing com-
petition law in relation to Britain’s pre-
paid cards market.
The Payment Systems Regulator said
that they had breached competition
law by agreeing not to compete for or to
poach each other’s customers.
Mastercard received the biggest fine
among the five, of £31.56 million. Pre-
paid Financial Services was fined
£916,746, allpay was fined £28,553,
Advanced Payment Solutions was fined

Private details of hundreds of debit and
credit cards in the UK are being leaked
on the dark web every week for as little
as £7, cybersecurity researchers have
revealed.
In the past six months, 74,775 credit
and debit cards belonging to people in
Britain were put on sale on the dark
web, part of the internet that is not
visible to search engines and needs a
special anonymising browser to use.
The cards on sale include all details
necessary to make a purchase — the
name on the card, the number, expiry
date and CVV number — while crimi-
nals can place filters on their searches,
such as looking only for a Lloyds bank
debit card from England, for example.
CyberInt, the cybersecurity firm that
provided the figures, said that there had

Card details being sold on dark web

Tom Knowles
Technology Correspondent

fee or to provide additional details in

order to rearrange. There is then a link

to a website that will look like part of the

delivery firm’s site asking for personal

and financial information.

Reuben Braham, a vice-president at

CyberInt, said: “Credit card theft has

always been bad, but with coronavirus

it’s getting a lot worse as people are

making a lot more transactions online,

so it becomes easier to get these card

details. It’s only increasing.”

CyberInt, which is based in Tel Aviv,

uses a special tool that it has created to

monitor the sale of stolen credit cards.

In the United States, 484,745 cards

have been leaked and put up for sale on

the dark web in the past 180 days, while

globally the total is 1.8 million cards.

The average cost of a debit or credit

card typically ranges from $10 to $20

(£7 to £15), according to CyberInt, with

criminals often selling dozens in one go,

with the purchase usually made in

cryptocurrencies.

Noam Kehati, a researcher at Cyber-

Int, said that the cards being sold would

come with details such as which

country it had been stolen from, what

bank issued it, and how much money

was on the card. She added: “In some of

the markets [on the dark web], there is

someone managing the whole market-

place to see that the transactions are

fair and everyone is getting their right

share.”

Last week the largest dark web mar-

ketplace of stolen credit cards said that

it was shutting down. UniCC, which has

made $358 million since 2013 in fees

from the sale of stolen payment card in-

formation by its members, posted on

dark web forums in Russian and

English that it was retiring. Analysts

expected the gap it had left in the

market to be filled quickly

been a jump in the number of cards

being sold by criminals on the dark web

since the pandemic, as scammers make

the most of more people shopping

online.

Researchers said that credit card

details were stolen in multiple ways.

Some popular tactics include tricking

people into clicking on malicious links

sent via an email or text message that

puts malware on their computer and

allows hackers to track keystrokes; find-

ing security flaws in retail or banking

websites that enable the theft of card

details; and creating replica sites of a

legitimate website.

UK Finance, the trade body for

British banks, warned last month that

the amount of “smishing” text messa-

ges claiming to be from parcel delivery

firms was surging. These claim that a

courier has been unable to make a

delivery and asks the recipient to pay a

Build-to-rent

specialist

doubles profit

Tom Howard

Profits at Watkin Jones doubled last

year as the builder cashed in on rising

numbers of institutional investors

looking to become landlords.

Pension funds, insurers and invest-

ment banks have long bought and sold

offices and warehouses, but until re-

cently had little desire to own family

homes. However, the build-to-rent sec-

tor has taken off in recent years: renters

like the high-quality finish at the devel-

opments, as well as amenities such as

communal working areas, pools and

gyms; institutions like the high occu-

pancy levels and reliable income.

“Consumers are starting to get

[build-to-rent] and that creates a

market for institutional investors to

follow,” Richard Simpson, chief execu-

tive of Watkin Jones, said. Simpson, 46,

added that he was seeing “record

demand from institutional investors for

student accommodation”.

Watkin Jones secures the land, sorts

out the planning and then sells the plot

to an investor, which funds the cost of

building residential rental homes or

student housing. It delivered five build-

to-rent schemes — just over a thousand

flats in total — and seven student

accommodation developments in the

year to the end of September.

Over the year, revenue rose by

21.5 per cent to £430.2 million, from

£354.1 million in 2020. Pre-tax profits

doubled to £51.1 million from £25.3 mil-

lion a year earlier. The shares rose 2½p,

or 1 per cent, to 267p.

Mastercard fined £31.6m over non-compete deal

£755,419 and Sulion £572. The pre-

paid cards were used by local author-

ities to distribute welfare payments to

vulnerable members of society, such as

the homeless, victims of domestic

violence and asylum seekers.

Chris Hemsley, managing director of

the regulator, said: “This investigation

and the significant fines we have

imposed send a clear message that the

PSR has zero tolerance for cartel be-

haviour. We will intervene and enforce

the law strictly to ensure there is effec-

tive competition in payments markets.

“This case is particularly serious

because the illegal cartel behaviour

associations potentially interested in

prepaid cards. Mastercard sponsored

and, other than for a short period in

2016, wholly funded the network, the

regulator said.

The second cartel involved

Advanced Payment Solutions and Pre-

paid Financial Services and lasted

between 2014 and 2016. It involved an

arrangement not to target each other’s

public sector customers when a con-

tract was up for renewal.

The regulator, which announced its

provisional findings in March last year,

said that the companies had been given

reduced fines as settling parties.

meant there was less competition and

choice for local authorities. They may

have missed out on cheaper or better-

quality products which were used by

some of the most vulnerable in society.”

The watchdog found that there were

two market-sharing cartels in the pre-

paid cards market, in violation of the

Competition Act 1998.

The first involved all five parties and

lasted from 2012 to 2018, though some

took part for a shorter period of time. It

developed against the backdrop of the

national prepaid cards network, which

brought together public sector bodies

such as local authorities and housing

Times Business Reporter

A

review of all

company

divisions has

been ordered

by Carr’s

Group, after its

engineering unit failed

to meet expectations

and with margins at its

speciality agriculture

business taking a hit

from higher prices for

raw materials.

Carr’s, which

yesterday said that the

year had started broadly

in line with its own

expectations, added that

there had been “limited

opportunities to benefit

from synergies” as all its

divisions operated in

different markets.

However, it said that it

was “confident in the

long-term prospects of

the group” and that its

“performance

expectations for the full

year remain

unchanged”.

The agriculture and

engineering group

traces its roots to 1831

and a flour mill opened

by Jonathan Carr to

supply his Table Water

biscuit factory.

In a market update,

Carr’s said that its

speciality agriculture

unit had traded in line

with expectations in the

20 weeks to January 15,

with sales volumes

ahead of last year,

although margins were

affected by higher prices

for raw materials. Strong

livestock prices are

expected to underpin

demand for the

remainder of the

financial year. Overall

trading in Carr’s

agricultural supplies

division was described

as on track, with a

strong performance

from its machinery

business.

Engineering was said

to have been trading

behind management’s

expectations during the

period but was

significantly ahead of

the previous year, driven

by a strong performance

in fabrication and

precision engineering

and an improved

performance in remote

handling and robotics.

Order books across the

division remained

strong, Carr’s said. Net

debt has risen to

£27.9 million from

£19 million a year ago,

the company reported.

Carr’s stock rose 4¼p,

or 2.7 per cent, to 160p.

Cud do better:

Carr’s looks

to identify its

weaknesses

Margins at the agriculture

arm have been hit by

rising prices for raw

materials, sparking a

review of the entire group

ALAMY