JEDDAH, 9 April 2003 — The fight against counterfeiting and forgery has expanded recently to include credit cards. Credit card holders are haunted by the fear of their cards being hacked, which can lead to real financial disaster. Banks have been working to prevent this crime for more than a decade; most credit cards now include a photograph of the holder but hackers still find a way to use them illegally. What procedures should users follow to assure safety and security? Arab News spoke to Neil Hawkey, vice president for Fraud Management of Visa International.
He said that 30 percent of international fraud was from counterfeit credit cards, while 20 percent resulted from theft. He explained “Monitoring is a key solution for Visa CEMEA (Central Europe, Middle East and Africa) members to reduce their exposure to fraud. Monitoring enables the card issuer — often a bank — to identify fraud at the earliest opportunity, take preventive measures and reduce exposure to losses.” Monitoring is used to detect any sudden or strange spending on a card and also to be aware of the location of the card holder.
Asked about the counterfeit cards, Hawkey said, “In all my years with Visa, I have never seen a good counterfeit card. The problem lies with the salesperson who is eager to sell an item but not trained to recognize a counterfeit card.”
Hawkey asserted that CHIP cards will put an end to fraud but the problem of theft will remain. “The shift to CHIP will occur in January 2006 in CEMEA and in 2005 in the EU.”
