Comeuppance for credit card rogues

By JAYATI GHOSE

Banks and credit card firms are trying hard to combat the menace of plastic money fraud. There are 45 million cards in circulation (13 million credit and 32 million debit) in India and a 40 per cent year-on-year growth.

Many banks and card companies have issued chip-based credit cards to stop fraud.

Introduced by UTI Bank, a chip-based card has computer chip technology in lieu of holograms. It has a microprocessor memory chip and data encoded on the magnetic strip with PINs for extra security. The chip is inserted into sale-point terminals, which validates the card. This does not require swiping, eliminating the risk of details being hacked during the swipe.

“Chip cards are virtually impossible to counterfeit and powerful encryption prevents unauthorised access to information stored on the microchip, making electronic payments safe,” said a spokesperson for Visa.

“The card prevents frauds because the chip cannot be duplicated. However, the annual fee for these cards will be more than that for regular ones,” he said. These cards require chip-enabled terminals that are mostly installed by banks, adding to the cost.

According to a senior ICICI Bank official, chip-based cards cannot have a major impact unless the industry as a whole introduces them.

In India, the mail order telephone order (MOTO) type accounts for the bulk of credit card frauds, said industry analysts. In such transactions, the card is not presented, but the details are given on the application form to buy goods or over the telephone.

To check misuse during MOTO transactions, ICICI Bank allows high-value transactions on new cards only by manual authorisation. The bank also calls up a cardholder if it finds a transaction abnormal or suspicious.

A call centre payment gateway is also insecure. With more air tickets being booked through an airline’s call centres where an agent takes the credit card details, including the 16 digit number and the bar code (the last three digits on the back side of the card), misuse of data is high.

Air Deccan has introduced the credit card masking system. This system allows credit card payments through an IVR (interactive voice response) instead of a call centre agent. The IVR will procure the credit card details without any manual interaction, thereby allowing the caller to provide credit card details to a more secure system.

MasterCard has also introduced innovative measures to prevent the misuse of cards. “From holograms and the tamper-evident signature panel to card validation codes, MasterCard security innovations have been adopted as industry standards. We have introduced MasterCard Internet gateway and MasterCard 2-factor authentication service,” a MasterCard official said.

According to a HDFC Bank spokesperson, the consumer monitors the card account regularly and ensures that the card is swiped in his/her presence.