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CREDIT CARD MINIMUM REPAYMENTS THE HIDDEN DANGER IN YOUR POST-CHRISTMAS BILL

Beware the minimum payment as you contemplate that post-Christmas credit card
balance.

Economists have found the minimum payments that appear on monthly credit card
statements act as an “anchor” causing many consumers to pay off less debt than
they otherwise would – and should.




PUTTING A PRICE ON CHRISTMAS

Australians will spend billions this Christmas, with the largest percentage
spent on food.




TECHNOLOGY AND THE ELDERLY

Linda Butler, 72, says she uses her computer and the Internet daily for a
variety of reasons.

A study by American researchers Benjamin Keys and Jialan Wang shows that almost
a third of card borrowers in the US make payments at or near the monthly
minimum. Their findings suggest a substantial proportion of consumers – up to
one in five – settle for the lowest possible payment even though they could
afford to pay more.

“A large fraction of near-minimum payers appear to treat the minimum as an
anchor,” the study published by America’s National Bureau of Economic Research
said.



Treating your credit card’s minimum repayment as an anchor can lead to greater
financial risk. Photo: Louie Douvis

That means higher balances, higher interest costs and eventually greater
financial risk for many card holders. At the national level the influence of the
minimum payments may be helping to elevate household debt, which makes the whole
economy more vulnerable to shocks.

Australian credit card users are also susceptible. A consultation paper released
this year by the Australian Treasury said “a growing body of experimental
research and field studies have shown that some consumers make a smaller
repayment than they otherwise would have simply due to the presence of the
minimum repayment.”

The Treasury paper said card issuing companies set minimum repayment amounts as
a very small proportion of the outstanding balance, “so that households making
the minimum repayment will only pay off their balance over a very long period
and incur very large interest costs.”

Gerard Brody, chief executive of Consumer Action Law Centre, said that credit
card users should focus on the total amount outstanding on their credit card
statement and pay off as much as possible rather than the minimum payment.

“The minimum payment might look easy to pay but that’s all the bank wants you to
pay,” he said.

“They know that if you do that, they will make a lot of money from you in
interest payments. What you should be focused on is the full amount outstanding
and paying that before the due date when the interest payments come through.”

There are no regulations that determine how credit card minimum payments are
set. The Treasury’s paper said they are typically 2-3 per cent of the
outstanding balance.

Consumer advocacy groups including the Consumer Action Law Centre and CHOICE say
minimum repayments should be lifted to ensure consumers aren’t lumbered with
high interest debt for decades.

CHOICE spokeswoman Nicky Breen said card issuers should also be required to
“proactively contact customers” who are only making minimum payments and drawing
out their debt.

“The federal government has had a consultation on broad credit card reform but
no decisions have been made as of yet,” she said.

Some card users simply don’t have enough money to repay any more than the
minimum. But Dr Keys and Dr Wang observe that when American credit card
companies lifted their minimum payments, consumers paid the higher amount most
of the time, suggesting they could have contributed that much all along.

Bessie Hassan, from financial comparison website finder.com.au, said card users
with the means to make payments above the minimum payment should make a
conscious effort to do so.

“Many borrowers fall into the mentality of thinking they just need to make the
minimum payment on their credit card, or some may simply be unaware that they
can make overpayments,” she said.

“Typically, there’s no cost involved for making overpayments so you’ve got
nothing to lose and everything to gain.”

Ms Hassan said that if a consumer with an average credit card debt of $3073 (and
average card purchase interest rate of 17.31 per cent) paid the minimum
repayment of $62, it would take 24 years to settle the debt and a total of $6000
in interest would be paid.

“However, if you increased your minimum monthly repayments by $50 to $112…you’d
pay it off within three years and only pay a total of $867 in interest,” she
said.

Since 2011 Australian card issuers have been required to tell customers on
statements how long it will take to repay debt if only the minimum payment is
made.

But Mr Brody said there has not yet been any “rigorous analysis” of what impact
this requirement has had on the behaviour of credit card users.

ooo

Henry Sapiecha


Posted in PROBLEMS, SAFEGUARDS, VIDEO AUDIO, WARNINGS | Tags: christmas spending
with credit cards, repaying credit card debt, xmas spending & credit cards | No
Comments »


CHICK-FIL-A RESTAURANT CHAIN INVESTIGATES HACK INTO CREDIT CARD PAYMENT DATA

Chick-fil-A is investigating a possible breach of credit card data that occurred
in mid-December.

Chicken sandwich chain Chick-fil-A is investigating a possible data breach at
some of its restaurants, the company announced Friday, saying it was working
with cybersecurity firms and federal law enforcement to determine whether its
payment system was hacked.

In a terse statement, the fast food company said “payment industry contacts”,
likely meaning credit card companies and banks, had reported suspicious activity
on 19 December. After those initial reports, Chick-fil-A contacted authorities
and cybersecurity companies to help investigate the activity, which it described
only as “involving payment cards at a few restaurants”.

A spokesperson for the company declined to comment; the company’s statement
declares it “premature for us to comment further given the pending
investigation”.

Cybersecurity journalist and expert Brian Krebs first reported a possible breach
in mid-December, saying that several financial institutions had traced the
common point-of-purchase on cards with suspicious activity to Chick-fil-A
locations. An anonymous source told Krebs that most of the restaurant locations
affected were in a handful of states, including Pennsylvania, Maryland,
Virginia, Georgia and Texas.

Krebs believes a breach of Chick-fil-A’s locations would likely have affected
only a fraction of the company’s nearly 2,000 restaurants. He compared the
breach to those of other medium-sized chains, such as Dairy Queen, that use
third-party companies to manage their purchase systems. In those cases, hackers
installed malware in the third party’s point-of-sale (POS) software — the
technology in a credit card terminal — allowing the thieves to steal data
encoded on the back of cards.

If confirmed, the December breach would add to a year of similar attacks on
major US corporations. In November, hackers installed malware on Home Depot’s
self-checkout systems, netting them 53m emails and compromising 56m credit and
debit card numbers. In December 2013, Krebs revealed a data breach of Target’s
system; the company discovered that criminals had compromised personal
information of about 110 million customers, and also likely used POS
infiltration.
Advertisement

In the digital arms race between authorities and hackers, corporations and
security firms are struggling to keep pace. In September, the Ponemon Institute,
a data protection research group, found that 43% of US firms had experienced a
data breach in the past year. In October, a majority of experts told Pew
Research they expected major cyber attacks to cause widespread harm in the next
10 years. And nearly two years ago, Symantec, the world’s largest antivirus
software company, admitted that its technology could no longer defend against
the most sophisticated cyber attacks.

With a wealth of credit card data and personal information, hackers can either
create counterfeit cards or sell the information to others. Chick-fil-A said
that if investigation confirms a data breach, customers will not be held liable
for relevant charges, adding that it would arrange identity protection services
for affected customers.

Krebs knocked down that offer “as a means of placating nervous customers”, and
both he and Chick-fil-A encouraged customers keep a close eye on bank and card
statements to look out for suspicious activity and possible identity theft.



MORE> www.intelagencies.com



Henry Sapiecha


Posted in CREDIT CARDS, FRAUDS CONS SCAMS, HACKERS, ID THEFT | Tags:
cybersecurity 7 credit cards on line, data cyber attack breaches for credit
cards on line, gathering intelligence on credit card scams, intel on credit card
scams | No Comments »


STOLEN CREDIT CARD DETAILS AVAILABLE FOR £1 EACH ONLINE

Guardian finds batch of 100 stolen cards on sale for £98 on ‘dark web’ amid
heightened fears about identity theft in wake of TalkTalk hack



To bulk buy stolen data at lower prices, fraudsters head to the dark web via the
Tor browser. Photograph: Thomas Trutschel/Photothek via Getty Image

UK credit card details are on sale for as little £1 each online, the Guardian
has learned, as fears rise over the security of personal data in the wake of the
TalkTalk cyber-attack.

More than 600,000 individuals had their personal details stolen from UK
companies in 2014, according to the Financial Times, underlining the scale of
online crime in this country. It is likely that some of that data will have
ended up on a website used by criminals wanting to buy high-end UK credit card
data.

Visa and Mastercard details stolen on Tuesday were offered to the Guardian the
following day – provided payment was made in the cypto-currency bitcoin – on a
website which is registered in Russia but run in English.

> What you’re talking about here is like managing to sneak through the security
> barrier
> 
> David Enn, security researcher

The site did not reveal where the details were harvested from, but the ownership
of the cards was clear. One credit card was registered to a person in Craigavon
in north County Armagh; another belonged to a resident of Chelmsford, Essex, who
lost their platinum Visa card earlier this week. Platinum cards are particularly
attractive to fraudsters because of their high credit limit. Scores more card
details, registered to addresses up and down the country, from Aberdeenshire to
Devon, were openly for sale on the site.



The example of the Russian-registered site is striking because it is on the
“surface” web, and easily available to conventional internet users. It has a
high-end design and layout, offers customer support and promises an 80% success
rate for the buyers of stolen cards. It sits at the luxury end of the identity
theft market, and charges accordingly – it wanted $72 (£47) for each card sold
to us.

To bulk buy stolen data at lower prices, however, fraudsters head to the dark
web. This can be accessed via the Tor browser, rather than conventional browsers
used by the vast majority of users. It bounces a connection through multiple
encrypted relays before it hits its destination. This obscures where the site’s
server is located, allowing would-be identity thieves to connect to hidden
services, and sites not accessible to non-Tor users.

Searching through Tor, it is possible to access a site which will sell 100
credit cards (with the CVV2 digits – the three numbers on the reverse of the
card) for just $150 (£98), around £1 per card. The site also sells PayPal
accounts at $100 for 100, while other hidden services will offer €1,250 of
counterfeited notes for €500. Free shipping is included.



Buying the stolen information is just the first step in a process that criminals
use to convert digital data bought online into hard cash. The credit cards are
used to load money onto easily obtained pre-paid debit cards. These are payment
cards that function similar to credit cards, and can be used to shop online, but
can be opened without the sort of checks wanted by banks when opening a current
account.

These pre-paid debit cards are used to buy online gift cards. In turn, these
gift cards are used to buy high-value electronics, such as iPhones or games
consoles, which are sold at a discount – an iPhone 6S for $430 or an Xbox One
for $240. That cash goes in the pocket.

But how do these dark websites get the data? A significant source of stolen
information, particularly in the US, is old-fashioned card-skimming: a
compromised terminal or company employee on the take, who steals the details of
a card in the process of completing a transaction.

Just as common is the 21st-century equivalent: malware. This is the catch-all
term for malevolent software that infects an individual’s computer to monitor
communications for confidential information such as banking passwords, credit
card details and social media logins. The data is uploaded to a central server
where it is sold on or used to further spread the malware.

The Gameover Zeus malware, disrupted by a joint UK-US operation in June 2014,
was one such attack. This acted as a form of “ransomware”, encrypting the
infected computer and demanding payment in bitcoin to release the data.

The third major source of data for sale is large-scale hacks, of the type that
was flagged by telecoms operator TalkTalk on 23 October. Sometimes the stolen
information can be used directly, especially where the company has irresponsibly
stored credit card data or passwords on their servers in plaintext; or it may be
used as the first step in stealing someone’s identity, where information from
two or more hacks is linked to build a profile that can be used to apply for
bank accounts or credit cards.



TalkTalk boss: we’re unsure how many customers were affected by cyber-attack –
video

Security experts call the organised criminal hacks “advanced persistent
threats”. But the attack on TalkTalk has left researchers bemused. A 15-year-old
boy from Northern Ireland is on police bail in connection with the cyber-attack,
while on Friday a 16-year-old boy was arrested in London.

TalkTalk appears to have been the victim of a relatively amateur and
opportunistic hack, according to experts. The company’s chief executive, Dido
Harding, said the perpetrator exploited a “sequential injection” attack.
Security researchers, realising she meant to say “SQL injection” – a common form
of attack in which a hacker tricks the website into releasing information from a
database – had a field day.

“It’s not the lowest-hanging fruit of all,” said David Enn, a researcher at
information security firm Kaspersky. “But certainly in terms of attacking core
infrastructure of the business, we’re not looking at a concerted, targeted
attack. What you’re talking about here is like managing to sneak through the
security barrier just by slipstreaming an employee.”



TalkTalk declined to discuss its defences in detail, given the ongoing police
investigation, but said it continually invested in improving its systems, and
constantly monitored and scanned its network to detect any weaknesses.

“We defend against all manner of attacks on a day by day basis,” a statement
said. “Each day we have to block over 170m scamming emails to our customers, and
we block over 1m nuisance calls to our customers each day.

“It is a constantly evolving fight against cybercrime and individual companies
on their own can’t tackle this problem.”



www.intelagencies.com

www.scamsfakes.com

Henry Sapiecha


Posted in HACKERS, ID THEFT, VICTIMS OF CRIME, VIDEO AUDIO | Tags: small talk in
talk talk, stealing credit card details on line, talk talk explains, talk talk
hack, talk talk saga, talk talk town tales, the tale of talk talk, victims of
credit card fraud, what is talk talk | No Comments »


HOW HACKERS FOUND A WAY TO THWART CHIP AND PIN CREDIT CARDS

Make no mistake, the tech is not invulnerable.



After years of preparation, chip and PIN credit cards are finally arriving in
the United States. But while a chip and PIN might be much more secure than a
signature, hackers have shown that it’s not invulnerable, and now we know how
they pulled it off.

As Ars Technica reports, a number of chip and PIN cards were stolen in France
back in 2011, and somehow, the fraudsters who took them were able to start using
them in Belgium, despite the security enhancements that credit card companies
are wont to hold up as unimpeachable. Security researchers expressed their
doubts about the tech as early as 2010, but the incident in Belgium was the
first (and so far only) instance of an actual exploit.

Now, the researchers behind the investigation have published a paper that
explains how the hack worked. At least as well as they can tell; the actual
cards are still untouchable due to being evidence in a criminal proceeding. As
Ars Technica explains:

> The fraudsters were able to perform a man-in-the-middle attack by programming
> a second hobbyist chip called a FUN card to accept any PIN entry, and
> soldering that chip onto the card’s original chip. This increased the
> thickness of the chip from 0.4mm to 0.7mm, “making insertion into a PoS
> somewhat uneasy but perfectly feasible,” the researchers write.

Essentially, that small extra chip would sit between the card’s actual chip and
the point of sale, and assure both sides that everything about the transaction
was on the up-and-up, even though it wasn’t.

The problem is solvable, the regulators behind the chip and PIN system say it’s
already been solved. But that a vulnerability was present at all is still
troubling. The all-around weakness of signature based authentication meant that
credit card companies had little choice but to eat the cost of plausible and
frequent fraud. But if those same companies hold up chip and PIN as infallible,
it could make claiming fraud much harder or virtually impossible.

Yes, chip and PIN will hopefully make credit card fraud much rarer, but if
credit card companies continue to treat it as fool-proof when it very well may
not be, the next vulnerability could prove very expensive for the victims.



www.intelagencies.com

www.scamsfakes.com



Henry Sapiecha


Posted in CREDIT CARDS, HACKERS, ID THEFT, PROBLEMS | Tags: credit card risks,
credit card security, hackers 7 credit card chips, hackers card chips & credit
cards, new credit card issues, problems with new credit cards | No Comments »


CREDIT CARD NEW TECHNOLOGY BRINGS WITH IT A SET OF PROBLEMS

Millions of Americans are getting new credit and debit cards with more secure
chip technology, and that’s already leading to headaches for companies that rely
on working cards to charge their customers every month.

Video and music streaming companies, dating websites, gyms and other
subscription-based companies can take a hit when customers don’t update their
accounts after receiving a new card. It’s always been a hassle, but with
millions of cards carrying the new chip technology being mailed out all at once
it’s creating bigger problems.

Netflix this week said large numbers of cards that weren’t updated were partly
to blame for slower subscriber growth in their most recent quarter.

The video steaming site said Wednesday that an unusual number of accounts were
cancelled during the three months that ended in September. Netflix Inc., which
has 69 million members around the world, expects the issue to continue into the
next quarter as more new chip cards roll out.

With subscription services gaining in popularity, where customers have funds
automatically withdrawn from checking accounts every month for a service, it has
become increasingly noticeable when people don’t update the cards that they use
for those services, or are unaware that they need to.

Often, the number on the card is still the same, but the expiration date has
changed, said Matt Schulz, a senior analyst at credit card comparison site
CreditCards.com. Typically, payments won’t go through if the expiration date is
different.

Recurly, a San Francisco company that manages bill payments for more than 1,900
subscription businesses, said it has seen a slight increase in card declines.
Recurly uses a service for its clients that automatically updates when new card
numbers are issued, so the customer doesn’t have to do it themselves, said CEO
Dan Burkhart, though not every bank participates in the service. Burkhart said
subscription companies will face some “turbulence” as customers get new cards,
but those issues typically resolve within a few months.

The problem has hurt Netflix before.

A year ago, the Los Gatos, California, company said a number of customer’s
accounts were put on hold due to The Home Depot data breach, which forced many
customers who shopped at the home improvements store to get new credit cards.

Similarly, IAC/InterActiveCorp, a New York company which owns dating websites
such as Match.com and OkCupid, said last year that credit cards that were not
updated after major security breaches at Target and Home Depot cost it about $5
million in earnings for the year before interest, taxes, depreciation and
amortization.



www.intelagencies.com

www.scamsfakes.com



Henry Sapiecha


Posted in CREDIT CARDS, MOVERS SHAKERS, PROBLEMS, SCIENCE TECHNOLOGY | Tags:
credit card fraud with IAC/InterActiveCorp, credit cards & new technology,
netflix issues credit cards, newest credit card technology, problems with new
credit cards | No Comments »


APPLE PAY BRIDGING BRICKS-AND-MORTAR AND ONLINE CREDIT CARD FRAUD

The Apple Watch will be able to make payments using Apple Pay. Photo: Reuters

 * CommBank’s Tap and Pay now on all Android NFC phones

Lost amid the Apple media firestorm these past few weeks is a stark and rather
unsettling reality.

Apple Pay – the company’s answer to a mobile (and wearable) wallet – makes it
possible for cyber thieves to buy high-priced merchandise from bricks-and-mortar
stores using stolen credit and debit card numbers that were until now only
useful for online fraud.

To understand what’s going on here, a quick primer on card fraud first: If
you’re a fraudster and you wish to walk into a big retailer and walk out with a
big screen TV or Xbox console on someone else’s dime, you’re going to buy
“dumps” which are data stolen straight off the magnetic stripe on the backs
of cards.

Typically, dumps are stolen via malware planted on point-of-sale devices, as in
the breaches at brick-and-mortar stores like Target, Home Depot and countless
others over the past year. Dumps buyers encode the data onto new plastic cards,
which they then use in-store at retailers and walk out with armloads full of
high-priced goods that can be easily resold for cash. The average price of a
single dump is between $US10-$30, but the payoff in stolen merchandise per card
is often many times that amount.



SOME 8 WAYS TO SEE IF YOUR CREDIT CARD IS BEING SCAMMED BELOW-CLICK LINK

http://creditcardseasy.net/2015/01/21/credit-card-fraud-eight-ways-to-get-your-info-hijacked/

When fraudsters want to order something online using stolen credit cards, they
go buy what the crooks call “CVVs” — card data stolen from hacked online stores.
CVV stands for “card verification code,” and refers to the three-digit code on
the back of cards that’s required for most online transactions. Fraudsters
buying CVVs get the credit card number, the expiration date, the card
verification code, as well as the cardholder’s name, address and phone number.
Because they’re less versatile than dumps, CVVs cost quite a bit less —
typically around $US1-$5 per stolen account.

So in summary, dumps are stolen from main-street merchants, and are sought after
by crooks mainly for use at main street merchants. CVVs, on the other hand, are
stolen from online stores, and are useful only for fraud against online stores.

Enter Apple Pay, which potentially erases that limitation of CVVs because it
allows users to sign up online for an in-store payment method for their iPhone
or Watch using little more than a hacked card account and CVVs. That’s because
most banks that are enabling Apple Pay for their customers do little, if
anything, to require that customers prove they have the physical card in their
possession.

Avivah Litan, a fraud analyst with Gartner, explained in a blog post published
earlier this month that Apple provides banks with a fair amount of data to aid
in their efforts at “identity proofing” the customer, such as the customer’s
device name, its current geographic location, and whether or not the customer
has a long history of transactions with iTunes.

All useful data points, of course, unless the iTunes account that all of this
information is based on is hijacked by fraudsters. And as we know from previous
stories, there is a robust cybercrime underground trade for hijacked iTunes
accounts, which retail for about $US8 each.



Litan’s column continues:

“Interestingly, neither Apple nor the banks get any useful identity information
out of the mobile carriers – at least that I know or heard of. And mobile
carrier data could be particularly helpful with identity proofing. For example
the banks could compare the mobile service’s billing address with the card
account holder’s billing address.

“For years, we have been briefed by vendors offering a plethora of innovative
and strong user authentication solutions for mobile payments and commerce. And
for years, we have been asking the vendors touting them how they know their
mobile app is being provisioned to a legitimate user rather than a fraudster.
That always appeared to me to be the weakest link in mobile commerce –making
sure you provide the app to the right person instead of a crook.

“Identity proofing in a non-face-to-face environment is anything but easy but
there are some decent solutions around that can be stitched together to
significantly narrow down the population of fraudulent transactions and
identities. The key is reducing reliance on static data – much of which is PII
data that has been compromised by the crooks – and increasing reliance on
dynamic data, like reputation, behavior and relationships between non-PII data
elements.

“This problem is only going to get worse as Samsung’s LoopPay and the
MCX/CurrentC (supported by Walmart, BestBuy and many other major US retailers)
release their mobile payment systems, without the customer data advantages Apple
has in their relatively closed environment.”

Sure, the banks could pressure Apple Pay to make their users take a picture of
their credit cards with the iPhone and upload that data before signing up. That
might work for a short while to deter fraud, at least until the people
at underground document forgery sites like Scanlab see a new market for their
services.



But in the end, most banks coming online with Apple Pay are still using customer
call centers to validate new users, leveraging data that can be purchased very
cheaply from underground identity theft sites. If any of you doubt how easy it
is to buy personal data on just about anyone, check out the story I wrote in
December 2014, wherein I was able to find the name, address, Social Security
number, previous address and phone number on all current members of the US
Senate Commerce Committee.

The irony here is that while Apple Pay has been touted as a more secure
alternative to paying with a credit card, the way Apple and the banks have
implemented it actually makes card fraud cheaper and easier for fraudsters.

Even more deliciously ironic, as noted in Cherian Abraham’s insightful
column at Droplabs, is how much of the fraud stemming from crooks signing up
stolen credit cards with Apple Pay was tied to purchases of high-dollar Apple
products at Apple’s own brick-and-mortar stores. That banks end up eating the
fraud costs from this activity is just the cherry on top.

Abraham said the banks are in this mess because they didn’t demand more
transparency and traceability from Apple before rushing to sign customers up (or
“provision” them, in banker-speak) for Apple Pay.

“One of the biggest gripes I have heard from issuers is the lack of transparency
from Apple (what did they expect?) and the makeshift reporting provided to
issuers that is proving to be woefully inadequate,” Abraham wrote. “As long as
issuers fall back on measures easily circumvented by freely available PII – this
problem will continue to leech trust and large sums of cash. And alongside of
the latter, there is much blame to go around as well.”

Both Abraham and Gartner’s Litan say banks need to take a step back and take the
time to develop more robust, thoughtful and scalable solutions to identity
proofing customers, particularly as other mobile providers begin rolling out
their mobile payment systems without the customer data advantages that Apple has
in their relatively closed environment.

“The vendors in the mobile user authentication space have consistently answered
that they are leaving account provisioning policies to the banks or other
consumer service providers provisioning the apps,” Litan wrote. “Well maybe it’s
time for them to reconsider and start helping their client banks and service
providers by supporting identity proofing solutions built into their apps.
Whoever does this well is surely going to win lots of customer support… and
revenue.”



www.intelagencies.com

www.scamsfakes.com

Henry Sapiecha


Posted in CREDIT CARDS, FRAUDS CONS SCAMS, HACKERS, ON LINE SCAMS, SAFEGUARDS |
Tags: android payments, apple watch payment, bill payment using apple watch,
using apple watch to pay bills | No Comments »


CREDIT CARD FRAUD & EIGHT WAYS TO GET YOUR INFO HIJACKED

Data: Credit card fraud isn’t always apparent to card holders, and banks don’t
always share information about an incident. Photo: Karl Hilzinger
Unaware of credit card fraud until the statement arrives or the bank rings? Here
are eight ways tech-savvy criminals can get your details from shops, ATMs and
other systems.

Card issuers like Visa and MasterCard often know if merchants have suffered a
breach before even the banks or the merchant itself, but they rarely reveal
their names to the banks. Rather, in response to a breach, card issuers will
send each affected bank a list of compromised card numbers often triggering
their cancellation.

Banks may be able to work backwards from that list to the breached merchant,
however, in cases where hacked merchants are known rarely is that information
shared with their customers.

Here’s a look at some of the most common forms of credit card fraud:

1. Hacked bricks-and-mortar merchant, restaurant:

Here criminals capture credit card details most often by remotely installing
malicious software on point-of-sale systems – the software that controls a
shop’s payments and inventory.

Distinguishing characteristic: Most common and costly source of card fraud.
Losses are high because crooks can take information from multiple cards and
produce counterfeit cards that can be used in big box stores to buy gift cards
and/or expensive goods that can be easily resold for cash.

Chances of consumer learning source of fraud: Low, depending on customer card
usage.

2. Processor breach:

This is a network compromise at a company that processes transactions between
credit card issuing banks and merchant banks. One such breach occurred in 2012
and involved some 10 million card numbers.

Distinguishing characteristic: High volume of card accounts can be stolen in a
very short time.

Chances of consumer learning source of fraud: Virtually nil. Processor breaches
are rare compared to retail break-ins, but it’s also difficult for banks to
trace back fraud on a card to a processor. Card issuers/banks generally don’t
tell consumers when they do know.



3. Hacked point-of-sale service company/vendor:

This is a compromise at the supplier of the point-of-sale system, not the
merchant.

Distinguishing characteristic: Can be time-consuming for banks and card issuers
to determine vendor responsible. Fraud is generally localised to a specific town
or geographic region served by vendor.

Chances of consumer learning source of fraud: Low, given that compromised
point-of-sale service company or vendor does not have a direct relationship with
the card holder or issuing bank.

4. Hacked e-commerce merchant:

A database or website compromise at an online merchant.

Distinguishing characteristic: Results in online fraud. Consumer likely to learn
about fraud from monthly statement, incorrectly attribute fraud to merchant
where unauthorised transaction occurred. Bank customer service representatives
are trained not to give out information about the breached online merchant, or
address information associated with the fraudulent order.

Chances of consumer learning source of fraud: Nil to low.

5. ATM or other skimmer:

Thieves attach physical fraud devices to ATMs, gas pumps and other card readers
to steal card numbers and PINs. For more on skimmers, see All About Skimmers
series.

Distinguishing characteristic: Fraud can take many months to figure out. Often
tied to gang activity.

Chances of consumer learning source of fraud: High. Banks often disclose to
cardholder the source of the fraud.



6. Crook employee:

A case often associated with small car hire outlets, motels and restaurants, it
involves an employee using a hidden or handheld device to copy card for later
counterfeiting.

Distinguishing characteristic: Most frequently committed by restaurant workers.
Often tied to a local crime rings, or seasonal and transient workers.

Chances of consumer learning source of fraud: Nil to low.

7. Lost or stolen card:

Distinguishing characteristic: The smallest source of fraud on cards. Consumer
generally knows immediately or is alerted by bank to suspicious transactions,
which often involve small fraudulent test transactions to see if the card is
still active – such as at automated gas station pumps in the US.

Chances of consumer learning source of fraud: High.

8. Record theft:

Merchant, government agency or some other entity charged with storing and
protecting card data improperly disposes of card account records.

Distinguishing characteristic: Usually not high-volume. A form of fraud less
common than it used to be.

Chances of consumer learning source of fraud: Nil to low.

It’s clear from the above that most consumers are unlikely to discover the true
source or reason for any card fraud. It’s far more important for cardholders to
keep a close eye on their statements for unauthorised charges, and to report
that activity as quickly as possible.



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Henry Sapiecha


Posted in CREDIT CARDS, FRAUDS CONS SCAMS | Tags: credit card fraud, credit
cards for buying cars, easy fix for credit card fraud, how to stop credit card
fraud, reversing credit card theft fraud | No Comments »


FRAUD-PROOF CREDIT CARDS NOW POSSIBLE WITH QUANTUM PHYSICS

WASHINGTON, Dec. 15, 2014–Credit card fraud and identify theft are serious
problems for consumers and industries. Though corporations and individuals work
to improve safeguards, it has become increasingly difficult to protect financial
data and personal information from criminal activity. Fortunately, new insights
into quantum physics may soon offer a solution.

As reported in The Optical Society’s (OSA) new high-impact journal Optica, a
team of researchers from the Netherlands has harnessed the power of quantum
mechanics to create a fraud-proof method for authenticating a physical “key”
that is virtually impossible to thwart.

This innovative security measure, known as Quantum-Secure Authentication, can
confirm the identity of any person or object, including debit and credit cards,
even if essential information (like the complete structure of the card) has been
stolen. It uses the unique quantum properties of light to create a secure
question-and-answer (Q&A) exchange that cannot be “spoofed” or copied.



A team of researchers from the Netherlands has harnessed the power of quantum
mechanics to create a fraud-proof method for authenticating a physical ‘key’
that is virtually impossible to thwart. Credit: The Optical Society (OSA) and
MESA+ Institute for Nanotechnology, Complex Photonic Systems Department of the
University of Twente



The “Question-and-Answer” Security Game

Traditional magnetic-stripe-only cards are relatively simple to use but also
simple to copy. Recently, banks have begun issuing so-called “smart cards” that
include a microprocessor chip to authenticate, identify and enhance security.
But regardless of how complex the code or how many layers of security, the
problem remains that an attacker who obtains the information stored inside the
card can copy or emulate it.

The new approach outlined in this paper avoids this risk entirely by using the
peculiar quantum properties of photons that allow them to be in multiple
locations at the same time to convey the authentication questions and answers.
Though difficult to reconcile with our everyday experiences, this strange
property of light can create a fraud-proof Q&A exchange, like those used to
authorize credit card transactions.

“Single photons of light have very special properties that seem to defy normal
behavior,” said Pepijn Pinkse, a researcher from the University of Twente and
lead author on the paper. “When properly harnessed, they can encode information
in such a way that prevents attackers from determining what the information is.”

The process works by transmitting a small, specific number of photons onto a
specially prepared surface on a credit card and then observing the tell-tale
pattern they make. Since — in the quantum world — a single photon can exist in
multiple locations, it becomes possible to create a complex pattern with a few
photons, or even just one.

Due to the quantum properties of light, any attempt by a hacker to observe the
Q&A exchange would, as physicists say, collapse the quantum nature of the light
and destroy the information being transmitted. This makes Quantum-Secure
Authentication unbreakable regardless of any future developments in technology.



Making Cards Quantum Secure

To provide security in the real world, a credit card — for example — would be
equipped with a paper-thin section of white paint containing millions of
nanoparticles. Using a laser, individual photons of light are projected into the
paint where they bounce around the nanoparticles like metal balls in a pinball
machine until they escape back to the surface, creating the pattern used to
authenticate the card.

If “normal” light is projected onto the area, an attacker could measure the
entering pattern and return the correct response pattern. A bank would therefore
not be able to see a difference between the real card and the counterfeit signal
projected by the attacker.

However, if a bank sends a pattern of single “quantum” photons into the paint,
the reflected pattern would appear to have more information – or points of light
– than the number of photons projected. An attacker attempting to intercept the
“question” would destroy the quantum properties of the light and capture only a
fraction of the information needed to authenticate the transaction.

“It would be like dropping 10 bowling balls onto the ground and creating 200
separate impacts,” said Pinkse. “It’s impossible to know precisely what
information was sent (what pattern was created on the floor) just by collecting
the 10 bowling balls. If you tried to observe them falling, it would disrupt the
entire system.”



Quantum, But Not Difficult

According to Pinkse, this unique way of providing security is suitable for
protecting government buildings, bank cards, credit cards, identification cards,
and even cars. “The best thing about our method is that secrets aren’t
necessary. So they can’t be filched either,” he said.

Quantum-Secure Authentication could be employed in numerous situations
relatively easily, since it uses simple and cheap technology — such as lasers
and projectors — that is already available.



www.intelagencies.com

www.scamsfakes.com

Henry Sapiecha


Posted in FRAUDS CONS SCAMS, NOTICES, SAFEGUARDS, SCIENCE TECHNOLOGY | Tags:
credit card sciences, fool pfoof credit cards, how to get a fraud proof credit
card, non defraudable credit cards, optico credit card security system, safest
credit card systems, the latest fraud proof credit cards | No Comments »


CREDIT CARD CHARGES TO BE SUBSTANTIALLY REDUCED

Retailers would reportedly be limited to charging consumers 12 cents or 0.5 per
cent of the transaction value, whichever is less. Photo: Pat Scala

Exorbitant credit card surcharges could soon be a thing of the past.

The financial services inquiry led by David Murray is reportedly calling for a
ban on all outrageous surcharges on credit and debit card transactions.

Instead, retailers would be limited to 12 cents or 0.5 per cent of the
transaction value, whichever is less, News Corp reports on Friday.

Many now charge two or three per cent on top of the purchase price if customers
pay with credit card.

Treasurer Joe Hockey said recommendations around the payments system are more
likely to be matters for independent regulators APRA and the Reserve Bank to
consider.

The government would focus on consumer protection and education.

The Murray inquiry will be released publicly on Sunday.

Mr Murray, a former chief of the Commonwealth Bank and head of the Future Fund,
and his team have been working on the inquiry for almost a year.

They have received more than 6,500 submissions since their interim report, 5000
of which touched on the issue of credit card surcharges.

Consumer advocate Choice says businesses, particularly in hospitality and the
entertainment industry, have long been gouging consumers.

“Consider that on a flight you’re not just paying by transaction, $7 or $8,
you’re paying per passenger,” spokesman Tom Godfrey told ABC radio.

“Airlines for a very long time have been profiteering on the back of credit card
surcharges.”

 

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AAP

Henry Sapiecha


Posted in CHARGES, CREDIT CARDS | Tags: credit card use charges, gov to put a
stop to execessive credit card & debit card charges, no fee credit cards,
reducing credit card charges | No Comments »


‘SORRY, MR PRESIDENT …’ BARACK OBAMA’S CREDIT CARD DECLINED

The buck stops here: It even happens to the President of the United States.

Washington: Even the president of the United States can have trouble with his
credit card.

Barack Obama said on Friday his card was declined at a New York restaurant he
patronised while visiting the United Nations.

“I was there during the General Assembly, and my credit card was rejected,” Mr
Obama said at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, where he unveiled new
measures to stem credit card fraud and identity theft.

“I guess I don’t use it enough.

“So they thought there was some fraud going on,” he said to laughter, adding,
“fortunately, Michelle had hers.”

Mr Obama signed an executive order that adds “chip-and-pin” protection for US
government cards and payment terminals as the financial sector implements
similar moves.

“I was trying to explain to the waitress, ‘no, I really think I’ve been paying
my bills’,” Mr Obama said.

“Even I’m affected by this.”



www.intelagencies.com

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Henry Sapiecha

Posted in DECLINED, PEOPLE, POLITICS | Tags: cc declined, cc obama cries, obama
credit card woes, presidents credit card declined, the president has credit card
issues, woe is me says mr obama | No Comments »
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