Credit Card Frauds

 

I want to know more about Search

 

The Fraud

Credit card fraud includes counterfeit cards, fraudulent or unauthorized use of legitimate cards, stolen and lost cards, re-embossed cards, and "skimmed" cards. The latter is a favorite of waiters who can skim a customer's card into a small device in his pocket and later sell all the skimmed numbers to an accomplice. It has been estimated that 70 percent of all credit card fraud can be attributed to skimming. In addition, credit card fraud is done online. And stealing cards out of mailboxes is a favorite means of acquiring them.

Prepaid credit card products serve many legitimate needs, from travel to payroll to gifts. They can be bought everywhere from pharmacies to delicatessens to banks to websites. Banks and other issuers of the cards have been actively working to protect their product lines from abuse.

The Flaw

The sheer numbers of transactions daily make credit card fraud inevitable. Each industry has its particular vulnerabilities. Your trade journals would be a good source of specific red flags to watch for in your line of work. Prepaid credit cards are a whole separate fertile field of fraud. See the money laundering discussion for details on these relatively new scams.

The Fix

Processors such as Visa, MasterCard and American Express have elaborate security systems to stem most varieties of credit card fraud. These measures are too numerous and complex to detail here, but if you go to their respective websites, you'll be able to see the astounding breadth of frauds and how these firms are grappling with them.

Merchants need to educate employees on the various tricks common to their particular industries, as well as the geographic regions where the most frauds originate. These days you'd want to be alert for transactions from Russia, Romania, Bulgaria, Egypt, and Malaysia. The least troublesome countries include Austria, Australia, Hong Kong, Norway, Switzerland, Spain and Taiwan.

Again, the Know Your Customer rule still applies.