Plastic not so fantastic
Chip and PIN has not stopped plastic card fraud. The latest figures from APACS, which runs the plumbing that keeps our money flowing, show that some kinds of card fraud are sharply up. Cash machine fraud rose by 37% in the first six months of the year compared to the same period in 2005. Counterfeit card fraud is up 16% and online banking fraud rose by a staggering 55%.
Thieves are moving into these areas because it is very difficult for them to use cards stolen in the post unless they also know the PIN. So they are targeting cash machines using hi-tech devices called skimmers. A false front on the machine reads the magnetic stripe on your card while a tiny camera videos the keyboard as you enter your PIN. The whole caboodle can be fitted in less than a minute without anyone noticing and removed as easily ten minutes later loaded with data from unsuspecting users.
The banks seem reluctant to invest in the anti-skimming devices which go inside ATMs and defeat the card readers. So far only one in four of the bank-owned cash machines in the High Street is fitted with such equipment. Another technique to deny the thieves access to our cash is also being ignored. The skimming device steals the data off the old technology magnetic stripe which thieves can then copy onto a new card. They cannot copy the new chip. Cash machines can be programmed to refuse cards with no chip. But most aren’t.
The other big growth area for fraud is online. I had eight emails just today apparently from a bank asking me to click on a link and ‘confirm my details’ in other words give them my passwords. Theft using these so-called ‘phishing’ emails is up from £4 million two years ago to £22.5 million in the first six months of this year. The problem is I also had two e-mails from my real bank trying to sell me things and asking me – you’ve guessed it – to click on a link to go the website. It is very difficult to tell one from the other. But the banks could help stop this fraud by agreeing never to send customers an email asking them to click through to the website.
Until the banks take these crimes more seriously we must all be vigilant. When you use a cash machine shield the keyboard as you enter your PIN, either with your other hand or, better still, a newspaper. And never ever respond to an email which appears to be from your bank. You could find phishers hook money from your account without you even feeling it.
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