Lines of defence

  • Credit card companies have constant monitoring of card activity designed to recognise patterns of fraudulent activity. These credit card security measures quickly notice suspicious activities and then a security hold is activated.
  • The next pattern that is observed is if spending habits are occurring outside normal spending patterns. It is advised to notify your credit card company if you are going to travel to other countries as spending abroad could activate credit card security measures which will trigger a card lockout while out of the country.
  • The other patterns that are monitored are what is actually being purchased. If customers suddenly start to purchase multiple items that are not easy to trace or could easily be sold, than this will again trigger a security hold.

A new technology that is helping to combating credit card theft and fraudulent activity is the use of chip and pin codes. This now mandates the card user to enter a pin number whenever the card is swiped for any purchase. This originated in the U.K. and preliminary reports have suggested that credit card fraud has been reduced by as much as 80%. This makes stolen credit cards essentially worthless because the card cannot be utilised without both components, the card itself and the assigned pin number.

A final credit card security measure that is offered by the large card companies such as VISA and MasterCard is in the form of card holder insurance. This measure guarantees that any unauthorised purchases will carry a zero liability policy for the card holder.

Although credit card fraud and theft are acknowledged and many practices have been instituted to combat these crimes it must be recognized that no anti-theft plan is foolproof. Personal responsibility such as keeping your credit cards secured and reviewing balances and statements regularly along with the credit card security measures will help to reduce the amount of fraudulent activity and credit card thefts to a reasonable number until newer security features can be developed to stop this worldwide problem.