American Express conceived the idea for the Fraud Prevention Network in early 2000 and was quickly joined by other industry leaders, all of whom have made security a top priority and are committed to making the World Wide Web a safer place for businesses and consumers. One of the group's key strategies will be to share fraud prevention information and best practices with merchants of all sizes in order to improve Web security and decrease the costs associated with fraud.
Merchants often bear the cost of fraud when stolen cards are used to purchase goods at their site.
American Express has a long history of partnering with its merchants to help them grow their businesses. By design, the Founding Members of the Fraud Prevention Network represent diverse sectors of e-commerce and bring a wide variety of fraud prevention expertise to the organization. First Data and Paymentech are experts in credit card processing. American Express, the Network's original founder, understands both the perspective of its Cardmembers and its merchant partners and has a variety of sophisticated fraud tracking tools in place to help monitor and prevent fraud from occurring. The Network has also hired Gartner Group, Inc. to conduct an independent study in which they will research and evaluate current and future fraud prevention solutions.