DUBLIN, IRELAND--(MARKET WIRE)--Jul 2, 2008 --
NEWS FACTS:

• Ethoca, the leader in collaborative fraud management, today announced that IMRG, the leading industry body for UK e-retailing, has recruited Ethoca to power its members in a collaborative fight against fraud.
• Industry bodies such as Trading Standards Institute (TSI) -- the professional association representing trading standards professionals in the UK and overseas -- have already come forward to encourage such industry-wide initiatives.
• IMRG is a membership community for the UK e-retail industry with a vision to maximize the commercial potential of online shopping. With 18 years' experience in a rapidly changing e-commerce market that is now worth £60 billion per annum and expanding at 30% year on year, IMRG helps members maximize their business opportunities and stay up-to-date with developments in the e-retail marketplace. (Figures according to IMRG)
• IMRG membership is made up of more than 270 of the top UK retail organizations and service providers shaping e-retail best practices to propel the retail industry forward. IMRG members have a profound impact on the UK e-retail industry because of their drive to implement best practices on an operational level. Just as retailers joined together as a forward-looking, revolutionary association 18 years ago, today's IMRG members are leading the way in tackling fraud and bringing far-reaching benefits to the entire e-retail industry.
• UK payments association, APACS, conservatively estimates Card-Not-Present (CNP) fraud to be £290m in 2007, with total fraud figures estimated to be over £1bn.
• Ethoca is driving collaboration for fraud management in e-commerce and other customer-not-present environments, including phone, fax or mail-order. By securely connecting its members to a collective pool of member-provided payment experience information, Ethoca enables its members to make more informed decisions about their customer transactions in a way that is efficient, effective and ethical, and in a way that is not a competitive threat.

QUOTES:

• "IMRG exists to share expertise and innovation within the e-retail community," said James Roper, CEO, IMRG. "Over the last 18 years our membership has seen first hand the power community has in making business better for everyone involved. Now, with the support of our more than 270 members, we are proud to recruit Ethoca as the community-based service provider we feel best fits our objective of securing the online shopping marketplace. We look forward to uniting everyone in this collaborative effort to end fraud as we know it and make e-retail significantly safer."
• Ron Gainsford, chief executive of the Trading Standards Institute (TSI), said: "TSI welcomes IMRG's initiative with Ethoca, in that it enables the e-retail industry to fight fraud with its most powerful weapon -- industry-wide collaboration. Online fraud is a serious and growing problem that we must all work together to prevent. With so many consumers and businesses relying on the Internet as a primary shopping channel, it's high time that such developments were introduced in order to make it as safe as possible for all. IMRG's practical approach acknowledges that there are no easy answers, and sets out to bring all of the industry's resources to bear on the problem."
• "For 18 years IMRG has led the charge among UK e-retailers as a unified community sharing knowledge and experience, and working toward a common vision of safer and more profitable e-commerce," said Andre Edelbrock, Ethoca's CEO. "Today marks a new era for IMRG as its members leverage the power of Ethoca's innovative collaborative technology to share knowledge and experience in a way not possible until now. We've all witnessed the explosive growth of social networking websites as people from across the world join to share common interests and activities--and now we're seeing that same phenomenon in the business community as companies harness the power of the community to fight fraud."
• "This collaboration is the first of its kind on such a large scale anywhere in the world, and signifies a formidable advance in protecting the e-retail industry against fraud," said Keegan Johnson, Ethoca's president. "We are thrilled that such a respected, long-standing and vast group of e-retailers are joining in the global fight against fraud. Together we're turning the table on the fraudsters."

About Ethoca

Working in partnership with forward-thinking businesses, individuals and law enforcement, Ethoca is making e-commerce safer and more profitable by building the first international Collaborative Anti-Fraud Community.

To be more successful in combating fraud, companies must collaborate within and across industries by securely sharing transaction experiences in a way that is not a competitive threat. Ethoca enables businesses that operate in customer-not-present environments (Internet, phone, fax or mail) to make more informed decisions about their customer transactions, by sharing transaction experience data in a way that is secure, automated, effective and ethical. Community members see reduced fraud, lower fraud-related costs, increased revenue from fewer wrongly rejected orders and improved customer satisfaction rates.

Ethoca(TM) is a registered trademark of Ethoca Limited. For more information about Ethoca visit www.ethoca.com.

About IMRG

IMRG (Interactive Media In Retail Group) is the industry body for global e-Retail. Formed in 1990, IMRG is setting and maintaining pragmatic and robust e-Retail Standards to enable fast-track industry growth, and facilitates its community of members with practical help, information, tools, guidance and networking. Consumers can be confident when dealing with IMRG's ISIS (Internet Shopping Is Safe) Trust Scheme Members because all have committed to operate using methods that are Honest, Decent, Legal, Truthful and Fair, and have undertaken to not bring the industry into disrepute. The strength of IMRG is the collective and co-operative power of its members. Members include some of the biggest names in global retail, such as the Royal Bank of Scotland, eBay, QVC and Hewlett-Packard.

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