Out-Law / Your Daily Need-To-Know
UK card fraud losses dropped by almost a third to £89.9 million in the first six months of the year, according to the Association of Payment Clearing Services (APACS). The industry group believes that the drop is down to the introduction of the new chip and PIN system.
Chip and PIN, which allows shoppers to verify purchases at point of sale by keying a four-digit PIN instead of signing on paper, was launched last year to tackle the growing problem of credit and debit card fraud.
Counterfeit card fraud has fallen 31%, while lost and stolen card fraud has dropped 27%, says APACS.
The figures do not cover other types of card fraud, such as identity fraud, mail non-receipt and card-not-present fraud. Half-year figures for these will be published next month.
The scheme is now moving into the final phase of its roll-out, with 14th February 2006 set as the deadline by which cardholders must be able to remember their PINs to make payments with their chip and PIN cards.
There will still be the odd instance in which cardholders will continue to sign after that date – for example, where purchases are made in outlets that are not yet using the chip and PIN technology, or using cards that have not yet been upgraded – but these will be the exception, rather than the rule.
“The vast majority of people are already successfully using PIN,” said Sandra Quinn of the Chip and PIN programme. “Ninety-seven percent of transactions on chip and PIN debit cards and 89% of transactions on chip and PIN credit cards are already successfully verified by PIN.”
The programme has launched the “I ♥ PIN” campaign to target the minority of customers who have chip and PIN cards, but are not yet using their PIN number.
