Online retailers were today given a boost in their attempts to minimise losses through fraud, with the announcement of a new data sharing partnership from fraud prevention specialists 192.com Business Services and The 3rd Man.

The new solution, offered by both companies, combines 192's identity verification capabilities with The 3rd Man's fraud screening technology, which compares merchant transactions to detect fraud patterns.

Integrated both capabilities into a single product will improve the manageability of retail fraud prevention from a technical standpoint, and provide a more cost effective solution, according to 192.

"There has been much talk about data sharing initiatives recently. Data sharing on its own is not a silver bullet but when coupled with customer identity verification the solution becomes immensely effective," said 192 director, Ian Green, in a statement. "The large existing customer base of 192 and The 3rd Man will be able to participate with minimal technical investment.”

Mike Smart, European product manager at Secure Computing, welcomed the announcement, adding that The 3rd Man's real time data screening capabilities would boost firms' fraud prevention capabilities.

"We'll probably see similar type of data sharing among vendors in the long term, especially in terms of reputation systems," he added.