Card Fraud - truly globalized

APACS released the latest figures on UK Card fraud - http://www.apacs.org.uk/2007Fraudfiguresrelease.html

It really shows how good criminals are in quickly exploiting 'systemic' loopholes. UK spent more than a billion pounds to implement chip and pin. Shows how truly globalized the criminals are! If ChipPin impedes my fraudulent activities in UK; no problem, I simply copy the magstripe and use it 'non' chip countries. Well, the biggest non EMV country is the US. Overall card fraud has increased 25% in 2007 over 2006. This is mainly driven by the 77% hike in overseas fraud. Online fraud rose 33%.  I think these figures will look the same for all countries across the world.

Total card fraud losses stand at a mind numbing  £535.2m. So, what do we infer from these figures?

-Whatever level of Chip / EMV security you put in a country, criminals will always find a way to clone magstripes and use them in places where EMV hasn't reached yet.

-Criminals will continue to thrive in the online world. With the surfeit of social networking and other areas for interaction, there is ample opportunity for criminals to indulge in 'social fraud'.

-As long as the US remains out of bounds on EMV, counterfeit fraud cannot be stamped off.

-With the economic downturn and heightened jobless levels, more vantage opportunities caused by desperation.

 All in all, expect these figures to up further in 2008. There is nothing to suggest that criminals are getting dumber or restricted in any way. If anything, worsening economic conditions are going to lead to more power to card fraud and swelling in the ranks of fraudsters.

"Fraud is like electricity; it is shocking and follows the path of least resistance."