Entrepreneur dials up anti-fraud technology

A TECH entrepreneur is setting his sights on tackling the multi-billion pound fraud industry after pioneering a secure order transfer system.

Jason Mace has spent nearly two years developing and refining the payment system after his own Rotherham-based business Gala Tent fell victim to fraudsters in 2014.

After looking for existing systems to help reduce his company risk to telephone fraud and  finding that there wasn’t a suitable system available, he invested in developing one.

During the past two years, Gala Technology has invested in the development of SOTPay, a unique payment transfer system which uses a series of rigorous card and customer checks to prevent fraudulent transactions.

The technology has been trialed and tested and uses 128bit encryption to produce a safe, secure environment which is fully compliant with the PCI Security Standards Council, offering a similar level of security found at banks.

Recent Government figures suggest fraud cost the UK economy £30bn in 2015, with telephone fraud accounting for nearly 50 million transactions.

Since launching SOTPay has eliminated 100% of Gala Tent’s own fraudulent telephone transactions and the technology is now being rolled out to help other businesses combat telephone fraud.

Mr Mace said: “Telephone fraud is one of the single largest threats to almost every business and can not only result in lost sales and revenue, but can also result in substantial fines if customer details are not protected securely. After one of my businesses began to be targeted by fraudsters, I began looking for ways of reducing the company’s risk to fraud but soon realised there wasn’t a suitable system available on the market.

“SOTpay elminates this problem by creating a secure environment which allows a telephone transaction to be undertaken safely. Fraud is one of the single largest threats to almost every business and telephone fraud accounts for nearly one in seven of fraudulent transactions in the UK. At Gala Tent 70% of our business is conducted over the telephone, which placed a considerable and unnecessary risk on the company.”

He added: “One of the main advantages offered by SOTpay is its flexibility. The technology provides protection to almost every type of business from a sole trader to a call centre environment, whilst crucially helping businesses to remain fully PCI DSS Compliant. We believe the technology could help to eliminate telephone telephone fraud and has the capability of not only benefitting businesses in the UK, but globally.”

Richard Jownally, fraud investigator at HSBC, said: “Fraud is an issue which can strike any business at any time but SOTPay is a fiendishly simple and effective way of helping businesses to reduce their risk. The technology works by using a secure 3D payment gateway which not only helps to deter fraudsters, but also protects the merchant.

“The technology makes it difficult for commonly used types of fraud to take place, helping to deter fraudsters whilst providing businesses with an added layer of security.”