Posts Tagged ‘credit card fraud’

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19
May/1012

Credit card skimming… watching for new opportunities (or vulnerabilities).

I just returned from speaking at a conference in Miami.  I checked into my hotel, and as part of my debriefing from the travel, I found the in-room safe to safely store my laptop, camera and other electronic devices.

As I read the instructions it dawned on me that we used our credit and debit cards in many different contexts beyond store purchases, gas purchases, red box terminals and ATM machines.

At the airport I had to use a credit card to retrieve my boarding passes – the airlines call it “self-service” checkin.  Nothing self-service about it, we had to get in line both ways due to system issues.  I wondered what system was behind the self-service terminals that hundreds of thousands of travelers insert their credit card into every traveling day, and more importantly, what safeguards were in place to protect my card information from skimming or theft.

The safe in our room had two options – enter a private code or swipe a credit card on the reader.  The same card used to close the safe would be required to be swiped to re-open the safe.  I wondered what systems were behind the safe tracking my credit card information, and more importantly, who had access to my card information when I swiped.  I chose to enter a four digit code, as I had no way of knowing if dishonest employees could access all the cards swiped on the room’s safe.  And then I wondered how many safes were in this one hotel – hundreds.  In all the rooms in all the hotels in the US alone – thousands…

An individual attending one of my sessions in Miami asked me what I suggested for a replacement to using debit and credit cards due the high incidence of skimming.  She asked if we should switch back to cash only.  I responded that if we did that, the number of personal robberies would certainly increase.

The solution if to be prudent where you use your credit card, monitor your card’s activity, loose your debit card (and switch to a credit card), and remain vigilant.

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Filed under Battle on Fraud 12 Comments »

13
May/1016

Skimming… not the redbox terminals. What’s next?

In preparing for a presentation I am making at University of Connecticut next week, I was searching the Internet tonight for images of credit and debit card skimming.

I came across a frightening image.  It was a picture of a redbox movie rental station, focused in on the credit card swipe area.

Much to my surprise I learned the folks stealing our credit card and debit card information have been installing their card skimming devices onto redbox stations.

If you are a redbox user like myself, you need to start watching for signs to ensure that a skimming device has not been added to the redbox station you use.

Here is the URL to the redbox image to help show you what to look for:

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_Y5Wj_eMCNq4/SFx15mMbAoI/AAAAAAAAAYU/OegMqgrtUCI/s1600/redbox.jpg

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Filed under Battle on Fraud 16 Comments »

22
Feb/1013

Do Credit Card Companies Bring Fraud On Themselves?

I just don’t understand when certain things occur that make no sense to me.

Today, for instance, I received a booklet of courtesy checks at my home.  These courtesy checks are linked to a corporate credit card I maintain for my firm.  All the information regarding the account pertains to the business: firm name, address, phone number… My monthly statements go directly to the firm address, as does all communications regarding the account – rightfully so – that’s the way I set up the corporate account.

So why then would this well-known, highly publicized card issuer send unsolicited courtesy checks to my personal residence that were prepared using my name (not the firm’s name) and my personal residence address (not the firm’s address) to be drawn against my account, when I would not be expecting such checks???

A few years back we had an experience with bank fraud.  In closing a relative’s estate a savings account was opened to accumulate any funds for estate purposes.  No checks were requested or issued, and no debit card was requested.  Simply a bank account to accumulate any funds until the estate was distributed.  So how surprised were we when we received a call from the fraud unit of the bank alerting us to potentially fraudulent activity on the account using a debit card???  Turns out the bank on it’s own accord issued a debit card on the savings account, and sent it to an old address used more than twenty years ago.  The current residents of that address received a windfall when the debit card arrived out of the blue in their mail – unbeknown to us.

Seems to me that although the credit card companies complain they fall victim to fraudulent activity and suffer the losses, their own actions in some part (perhaps a large part) contribute to fraud and could have been prevented if they simply stopped sending out unsolicited information (or worse courtesy checks) to cardholders not expecting the materials.

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Filed under Beyond Fraud 13 Comments »

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