Fraudulent wireless network detection with proximate network data

A computer comprising:

• a processor;
• and
• a computer-readable medium coupled to the processor, the computer-readable medium storing one or more instructions which, upon execution by the processor, causes the processor to perform operations for:
• receiving, from an access device or a communication device, an authorization request message in a transaction;
• obtaining network data based on a set of wireless networks that are proximate to the access device or the communication device interacting with the access device during the transaction;
• determining a difference between the network data and previous network data, wherein the previous network data is based on one or more previous sets of wireless networks that were proximate to the access device or the communication device during one or more previous transactions, wherein determining the difference between the network data and the previous network data comprises determining that the set of wireless networks includes a number of new wireless networks that are not included in any of the one or more previous sets of wireless networks;
• and
• responsive to determining that the difference exceeds a threshold number of new wireless networks, initiating one or more actions associated with the transaction.

A method comprising:

• transmitting, by a communication device, one or more request parameters to an access device;
• receiving, by the communication device, a request from a computer for network data based on a set of wireless networks that are proximate to the communication device;
• detecting, by the communication device, the set of wireless networks that are proximate to the communication device;
• generating the network data based on the set of wireless networks that are proximate to the communication device;
• and
• transmitting, by the communication device, the network data to the computer.