New Credit Card Fraud

Do you remember the Target credit card breach in 2013? I do since my wife's credit card information was accessed and exploited. I didn't report it because apparently, the hackers were spending less than my wife was and my FICO score actually went up. All kidding aside, that breach was a turning point in the credit and banking industries. The Target breach finally brought the issue of how easy it is to steal credit card information to the forefront and got consumers made their voices heard.

Credit card companies, banks and retailers finally took action only because their bottom lines and reputations were affected, but more importantly, their profits and personal wallets. Until then, their focus on point of sale transactions was based only speed and convenience driven by customer demand and ease of use with no thought safety or security because, that, would of made the Point of Sale transaction "take to long" and "inconvenience the customer".

Now that the damage has been done and millions of consumers have had their their information stolen and have had to pay for bogus charges, the credit card companies have come up with a new method to supposedly prevent future attacks. While that may sound like a good move in the right direction, keep in mind that regardless of what actions credit card companies, banks, and retailer do to remedy the problem, the basis of their response will always be grounded on profitability and convenience, not security. How do I know this? Simple, These industries are focused on profits, not security. They know that consumers will always choose convenience and speed over security. That can be proven by the fact that hackers and information thieves always target the convenience based POS transactions.

After the Tearget breach, credit card companies came up with several alternatives to standard credit card POS transaction methods. Alternatives such as RFID (Radio Frequency Identification), Bluetooth enabled cards, Flagship Merchant Services System, and other methods have been suggested. That's all fine and dandy but the original catalyst has not changed at all. All of the new suggestions are still based on convenience based  on the demand of the customer and profitability, not securit since all of those suggested methods have known security flaws.

I feel that the industries affected are well of these current security flaws but will continue fleecing the consumer by trying to show that they care about your security by showing some effort to make changes that will supposedly make you safer. If this this case, hackers and ID thieves will simply shift their techniques to already known security flaws with these established technologies and continue to violate consumers.

To prove my point, many credit card companies and banks have made changes to their credit and debit cards by adding extra security features and other commonly used technologies to their procedures. That's all fine but, the card reading machine companies and retailer have not. So you may receive an unhackable super card from your credit card company or bank but, you may still have to use an easily hackable card reader at the store. Why? because the unhackable card readers cost the retailers money, money they're not ready to part with for your safety. And, card readers (skimmers), are easily installed in ATMs and gas pumps by hackers and ID  thieves without the proprietors' knowledge. So, you may have a super unhackable credit or debit card but but get easily hacked and robbed by using that card at at convenience store ATM or gas pump with a skimmer.

Many of these new "hack proof cards" have already been issued and already in use by many of the credit card companies and banks but they won't be totally "hack proof" until late 2016 or later because the change to the new technology will cost retailers and banks money, money their not willing to part with until it affects their bottom line, profit. You saw how the banks blamed the credit card companies and the credit card companies blamed the banks after the Target breach. It was a simple matter of cost.

So what can you do to protect yourself in the mean time? Remember, cash is king, use cash whenever possible, avoid ATMs at businesses other than banks or reputable businesses, avoid using debit or gas cards at gas stations, learn what skimmers look like, use preloaded gift and credit cards with minimal amounts  for online purchases, remember that just because you have a "secure" credit card doesn't mean the card reader is secure, get a credit monitoring service.