MRC’s Gamer Safety Alliance (GSA) is hosting the third annual Gamer Safety Week, which brings industry leaders together to focus on the latest security issues facing gamers. High profile data breaches, such as the PlayStation Network hack in 2011, result in lost consumer information, such as passwords and usernames, allowing fraudsters to jump from one gaming account to another and gain access to payment information.

The theme for this year’s Gamer Safety Week is, "account safety and security in the online world," and coincides with Safer Internet Day. According to the CyberSource Fraud Survey of 2013, account takeover was ranked as the second highest fraud threat to online merchants, over identify theft and botnets.

"Gamer Safety Week allows for the best minds in online gaming fraud prevention to collaborate on risk mitigation strategies that protect their consumers," commented the MRC’s Karisse Hendrick, an industry specialist.

Mark Gerban, head of payments, Innogames, adds, "When users invest so much time and money into their gameplay, account security becomes a serious issue. We want to make sure that people can continue to play and have fun without losing everything they have accomplished."

The GSA offers three steps for gamers to take to keep their data safe:

— Add security proofs (phone number, secondary email address, etc.) to
all online accounts where possible, especially when email accounts are used as usernames.

— Do not use the same moniker and password for your email address as other online accounts (ex. John123@example.com, online account usernames = John123).

— Use multiple e-mail addresses for online accounts. Consider using different groupings such as a secure e-mail address for all financial and banking information — one account for online shopping accounts and other for online gaming.

James Barrett, a fraud prevention associate at Turbine, says, "We understand how quickly a great game can be tarnished by fraudsters. It’s important that we, as professionals, provide assistance, proactively when possible and reactively when necessary, for all fraud related issues."