QUESTION

 

Case Study – Newcastle Bank

Australians lost almost half a billion dollars in credit card fraud in a single year (Molloy, 2019)

The following is a news extract from www.news.com.au :

“As we become an increasingly cashless society, tech savvy criminals are stepping up efforts to rip us off — and credit card theft is through the roof. Australia’s love of online shopping and the move towards an increasingly cashless society have seen an explosion in credit card fraud. Analysis by consumer comparison website finder.com.au found ‘card-not-present’ fraud rose a staggering 76 per cent in the 12 months to June 30, 2018, to 1.8 million dodgy transactions. “It’s a bigger increase than I expected,” says Angus Kidman, editor-in-chief at finder.com.au. “I don’t know it people realise how prevalent it is. I think we’re aware it’s a problem — we hear about attempted fraud with credit cards — but the volume of fraud is huge.” The value of card-not-present crime rose 7.8 per cent to $478 million, and it now accounts for 85 per cent of all credit card fraud.

Typically, Australians fall victim when they enter their details on dodgy sites operated by scammers that aim to trick people into thinking they’re on a legit page. In some cases, the data of reputable operators is hacked and stolen. “Often times, they’ll do a small transaction to see if the card works and then buy a bunch of physical goods to get them delivered as quickly as possible,” he said. “These criminals run it like a business — it’s a very well-organised approach rather than random individuals having a go at fraud.” Banks use sophisticated systems to intercept fraudulent transactions and will typically reimburse the swiped amount. “It’s not flawless though, which is why it’s important to be vigilant,” Mr. Kidman said. Even though banks will waive the amount stolen, the quicker fraud is detected and acted on, the better. If they don’t detect the criminal activity, it can be a headache to sort it out when — and if — you eventually discover it yourself. “It’s boring and tedious but it’s worth looking at your statements and transactions to see if there’s anything there that shouldn’t be. The ideal habit is to be across your transactions (Molloy, 2019).”

Despite taking measures to fight online frauds, Australian banks, in general, are concerned about the effectiveness of their cyber security system. They are also concerned about the customer perception of the online security system, services provided by banks in the case of an online fraud, and overall safety of customers’ hard-earned money. Given this backdrop, Newcastle Bank has decided to conduct a research in order to develop an effective cyber security strategy based on customer perception of the security system per se and the associated services provided by the bank.

In this assignment, you will play the role of a researcher hired by Newcastle Bank to conduct research and collect information to assist with the decision-making process. Before data collection can be commenced, you are required to develop a research proposal to inform the bank what is to be attained from the research and how.

Required

The research proposal needs to be structured as follows:

• Problem statement/background (250 words): 

(This section should provide a succinct background of the case that places the analysis into context).

• Purpose of the research (150 words):

(You need to clearly identify the purpose/objective of the research. You may write down the main purpose of the research and that can be segregated into some specific research purposes/objectives).

• Research design, including the design of a questionnaire (600 words): 

(Research design section should explain the way the research will be conducted. In particular, this section should mention the research approach to be used and its justification. A questionnaire will be included in research design.)

• Sample design (350 words): 

(Sample design section should clearly identify the target population and the type of sampling techniques needed. This section should also discuss how large the sample size may be).

• Data collection, processing and analysis (250 words):

(Data collection, processing and analysis section should clearly demonstrate who will gather data or how will the data be gathered, how much supervision is needed, and what basic techniques are needed to process and analyse data).

• Budget and timeline (200 words): 

(Total budget and time period need to be meaningfully allocated to different steps of research).

• Dummy tables (100 words): 

(Dummy tables should report some hypothetical result to inform the audience how the actual results will look like. Dummy tables should be consistent with research/survey questions).

• References (100 words):

(American Psychological Association (APA) 6th Edition. You can find helpful examples of APA 6th ed. citation in the NBS Postgraduate Student Manual as well as at http://libguides.newcastle.edu.au/apa-6th.)

Note: Word count is a guide only.

Readings

• GSBS6002 Weeks 1-5 Lecture Notes/Handout and workshop materials (available on Blackboard).

• Business Research Methods (with Qualtrics Printed Access Card), 9th Edition William G. Zikmund, Barry J. Babin, Jon C. Carr and Mitch Griffin.

• Molloy, S. (2019). Australians lost almost half a billion dollars in credit card fraud in a single year. Accessed from: https://www.news.com.au/finance/australians-lost-almost-half-a-billion-dollars-in-credit-card-fraud-in-a-single-year/news-story/562e11ac746d8f7472957bead70d13f7

 

 

ANSWER

 

Table of Contents

Problem Statement

Purpose of the Research

Research Design

Sample Design

Data Collection and Processing

Budget and Timeline

Dummy Tables

References

Problem Statement

Online banking transactions are becoming trends these days, and fraudulent transactions are increasing side-by-side with them. Banking system in Australia has been constantly worrying and reporting these days due to the increasing number of cyber attacks and credit card frauds. This sector is seen as the backbone of the economy, and customer security has remained one of their biggest priorities regarding online banking. Tech savvy criminals access the personal information of consumers, by hacking their details through phishing, email-hacking, cookie tracking, etc. These scammers operate in groups and follow a step-based approach in making transactions from the hacked account or credit card. Australian victims reported loss of more than $340 million of fraud schemes in the year 2017. Online payments fraud on all Australian cards has shown reports of around $476 million. The Australian laws about the cybersecurity crimes were not much stringent, but these days both the banks and the government are trying to minimize the cybersecurity risk.

Some of these frauds are Card-Not-Present (CNP) Fraud, Counterfeit, Never Received, Lost/Stolen, Fraudulent Application, etc., out of which CNP fraud has been the most occurring one. It occurs when relevant card details are stolen and then misused for making fraudulent transactions either through online or by telephone. Malware, Cross-site scripting, and Phishing attacks are mainly used for capturing sensitive cards data or passwords. One out of every three credit card customers in Australia have experienced phishing mails and malware attacks on their account.

Purpose of the Research

The main purpose of this research is to understand the current perception of Australian customers about the cybersecurity system of banks to prepare an effective cyber security strategy. The research will help in getting the information about the ongoing incidents with the customers and how their online behaviour changes post any cybersecurity attack. The research also aims to ask about the customer satisfaction score with respect to the services provided by the bank, which will also include the cybersecurity services. The responses from the survey will help in tracking the variation of fraudulent transactions with gender, age group, income group, frequency of being online, etc. This research will help the bank in achieving a desired level of preparedness in countering fraud risk. The study can also help in increasing the awareness level of Australian bank customers about the fraud cases and the connecting medium.

Research Design

Research Design is observed as the structural form used to analyze the subject matter under study with a purpose of getting answers of the research questions (Denzin and Lincoln, 2013). The design of the research to be conducted will be both descriptive and analytical in nature. Descriptive research has been adopted for understanding the “what” perspective of the Australian customers about their observations and experiences with the concerned banks. However, the selected research design will not give a causal relationship between the cyber crime and the customer perception of the Australian banks. But, this is not the main requirement for the research, which is why we would like to go with the descriptive research design.

The primary data will be collected through a well-structured questionnaire based survey. A survey is said to have particular characteristics of the selected population of subjects either at a fixed point of time or a dynamic time period for comparing different subjects (Bracken et al., 2009). It will consist of both open-ended and close-ended questions, with a 5 point Likert scale. The questionnaire will be divided in four sections: The first section will consist of questions related to demographic details of the respondents such as their age, gender, income group, etc.; the second section will consist of questions related to the causes and perception of the bank frauds based on their observation or past experience; the third section will consist of the questions about the risk associated with the bank frauds; and the fourth section will consist of the questions related to the possible strategy options for minimizing bank frauds, which will be done on a 5 point rank scale.

A sample questionnaire for the research is provided below: –

Section A – Personal Details

1. What is your gender? Male Female Prefer not to say

2. Indicate your age group. (a) Below 18 (b) 18-24 (c) 25-34 (d) 35-44 (e) 45-54 (f)55+

3. Your marital status. Single Married Divorced

4. What is your highest academic qualification? a) Graduation b) Post-Graduation c) Doctorate d) Others

Section B – Perception of Bank Frauds

1. What do you think about the problem of fraud in the Australian banking industry?

1. Major Problem
2. Minor Problem
3. No problem at all
4. Can’t say.

2. Tell us your opinion about the trend of bank frauds in the Australian Banking industry.

1. Increasing at a rapid rate
2. Increasing slowly
3. Constant
4. Decreasing slowly
5. Decreasing at a rapid rate

3. What is the most common way of frauds in the banking industry, according to you?

1. Credit Card not present
2. Cash stolen
3. Fraud cheques
4. Others, please explain –

4. What is the main motivating factor behind committing bank frauds?

1. Financial reasons
2. Lifestyle habits
3. Profession
4. Personal Reasons
5. Can’t say
6. Others, please explain –

5. Give an overall rating to the cybersecurity system of banks in Australia (1 – 10, 1 with being the lowest).

Section C – Risks associated with bank frauds

1. Have you ever been a victim of bank fraud? a. Yes b. No c. Prefer not to say

2. If yes in Question 1, please tell us the medium of fraud.

3. If yes in Question 1, please tell us how the fraud was detected.

4. Estimate the average no of days after which you think that a fraud is detected.

a. Within 2 days b. 2-7 days c. Within 15 days d. More than 15 days

5. Do you think that the easily available online banking services has led to the cybersecurity risk for the Australian banking industry?

a. Yes b. No c. I don’t know

Section D – Strategies for prevention of bank frauds

1. What should be the frequency of reviewing system for fraud detection, according to you?

a. Weekly b. Monthly c. Quarterly d. Half-yearly e. Annually

2. Should there be a budget for fraud prevention and detection in an organization?

a. Yes b. No c. I don’t know

3. Please rank (1-5) the following fraud prevention measures, which you think should be included in a bank for detecting and preventing fraud. (1 = Most Important, 5 = Least Important)

Measure	Rank (1 – 5)
Monthly auditing of frauds
Establishment of fraud prevention policies
Training employees for fraud detection
Use of surveillance cameras at important locations
Introduce a security department specially for fraud detection
Staff rotation policy
Weekly ethics training
Using forensic accountants

Sample Design

A sample is a representative of the population, which is used for hypothesis testing and analyzing the result (Gaylord , 2012). Sampling design is the method of selecting primary elements of study from the subject matter and analyzing the responses to the research questions.

The target population for the survey will definitely be in the working age group, as we would like to understand and analyze the opinions of those people who have a personal bank account or a credit card or other similar services. However, we would be using a random sampling for this research. This would help us in understanding the perceptions of diverse background of people. A sampling technique is a defined process for selection of a particular methodology through which the entities for the main study will be decided (Elliot & Willingham, 2010).

The sample size will be calculated such that every individual in the chosen population will have an equal chance of being included in the sample (Kadam & Bhalerao, 2010). The sample size for the research will be calculated from the below formula –

N = {2 * (Z_α + Z_1-β)² * σ² }/ Δ²,

Where N is the Sample size of the research,

Z_α and Z_1-β are the values calculated for our accepted p-value level,

σ is the estimated standard deviation of the population calculated from related research papers,

Δ is the estimated effect size.

We would be conducting our research at 5% significance level, so our Z_α will be 1.96 and Z_1-β will be 0.8416 respectively. From the related research papers, the standard deviation has been estimated at 0.60. The error rate has been taken at 5% for the research. After calculating all these values, the sample size required for the research comes out to be 2260 individuals.

Data Collection and Processing

The data will be collected through a detailed questionnaire which will have a similar structural pattern as discussed previously in the paper. Respondents would be requested to fill the survey form and provide some information about them. The questionnaire will have both open and close ended questions. Some questions will have a Likert scale, in which the respondents will be asked to rank.

The questionnaire will consist of four sections. After the respondents are completed with the first section, they will be asked to fill the second section, and so on. We would be assuring them the confidentiality of their personal information and perception as it will be helpful in increasing the response rate.

The data collection will be done through both online and offline medium for getting information. The collected data from all places will be collated and analyzed together. There will be a survey team, who will be distributing the survey form to the respondents, and there will be a team which will collate and supervise the whole process.

Budget and Timeline

The budget for the research will consist of the amount included in collecting responses, the supervision team fee, and the consulting team for analyzing the responses and providing insights and suggestions based on those responses. The estimated budget for the whole project can be pegged around $20000, excluding the miscellaneous expenses.

The estimated timeline for the whole project will be around 6 months, out of which first 2 weeks will be for preparing questionnaire form and 3 months will be for data collection and survey, 1 month for collating the data, 1 month for analyzing the data, and last 2 weeks for preparing suggestions based on the responses, analysis, secondary research.

Dummy Tables

Table 1 Demographic details of the respondents

Gender	No of respondents
Male	762
Female	1273
Age
Below 18	126
18-24	430
25-34	708
35-44	396
45-54	297
55+	98

Table 2 Responses for the suggestive measures for fraud detection and prevention

Measure	Rank (1 – 5)
Monthly auditing of frauds	4
Establishment of fraud prevention policies	5
Training employees for fraud detection	3
Use of surveillance cameras at important locations	5
Introduce a security department specially for fraud detection	2

Table 3 Level of satisfaction of the respondents with the Australian banks

		Frequency		Percent	Cumulative Percent
Validity	Strongly Agree	261		12.83	12.83
	Agree	430		21.13	33.96
	Neutral	480		23.59	57.55
	Disagree	601		29.53	87.08
	Strongly Disagree	263		12.92	100
Total		2035	100		100

References

1. Julian Bajkowski, 2018 Aug 22, Online payments fraud in Australia explodes to $476m, IT News

2. Cassandra Cross, 2018 May 23, A record $340 million lost to fraud in Australia, says latest ACCC report, The Conversation

3. Ivan Yau, 2018 May 28, What Australian financial institutions need to know about cybersecurity and responding to cyber-attacks, Regulation Tomorrow

4. Norman K. Denzin and Yvonna S. Lincoln, 2013 Oct, The Landscape of Qualitative Research, Sage Publishing

5. C. C. Bracken, D. Atkin, and L. W. Jeffres, 2009 Sep 26, Parameter estimation validity and relationship robustness: a comparison of telephone and Internet survey techniques, Science Direct

6. Seema Singh, 2018 Jul 26, Sampling Techniques, Towards Data Science

7. Reed J. and Procter S, 1996 Jun 01, A sampling strategy for qualitative research, Europe PMC

8. Njanike Kosmas, 2014 Jul 10, The effectiveness of forensic auditing in detecting, investigating, and preventing bank frauds, DSpace

9. N. P. Singh, 2016 Apr, Online Frauds in Banks with Phishing, Journal of Internet Banking and Commerce

10. Prashant Kadam and Supriya Bhalerao, 2010 Mar 06, Sample Size Calculation, US National Library of Medicine

 

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