Thread: Credit & Debit card fraud

Are credit and debit card fraud on the INCREASE or on the DECREASE since Chip and PIN was introduced? Have any official figures been released?

There was an interesting program regards this on TV the other night.

Basically chip and pin req's you to have and use a PIN number.

In the UK, this has reduced fraud by over 50%, however due to cloning of cards by dodgy retailers, the magnetic strip information which contains account info etc, along with the PIN numbers are recorded and a new 'cloned' card is made.

Abroad, they haven't really taken up the chip & pin idea - they don't check the chip info, as a result, these cloned cards are used in ATM's with no problem whatsoever.

It also seems that Police in this country aren't really bothered, in the TV program, one woman actaully told police when and where a delivery of goods ordered by a cloned card was to be sent, the police didn't even bother contacting her.

The outcome of the program was, until ALL retailers use both the chip and pin info, then fraud generally is on the increase, it is massive business with little or no chance of getting caught. The card issuers apprently do not inform police if the goods obtained are less than £3k in value, as a result HUGE amounts go unreported.

Another way to reduce goods ordered going to another address was to insist that all retailers ONLY send goods to the card holders REGISTERED address.

Luckily for the consumer most banks etc will refund any monies obtained from fraud once it has been investigated, unfortunately this does,'t help the poor consumer for a while, if he has no money left in his account.

So - what you're saying is that card fraud is on the increase, the banks and the police alike are apathetic about it, and in fact most fraudulent card transactions don't live up to the holy grail of "card fraud". Great. What a great country we live in.