Sam Dunn says that taking security precautions with your financial details is nothing to be ashamed of.
“Her face reddened slowly as a flush grew on the back of her neck and a faintly audible stammered excuse tumbled forth from her lips.”
Sadly this isn’t the intro to a lascivious yet lucrative airport bonk-buster but a minor humiliation in a supermarket checkout queue last month.
The catalyst was a youngish woman’s efforts to cover her personal identification number (PIN) pad as she tapped in her four-digit security code to pay for a few groceries.
Her awkward hunch over the counter had first sparked a loud titter or two from a fellow queuing shopper in front of me, especially when she appeared to forget the number and had to start again.
Yet it was only the booming boorish comment from a man behind her, a snidey “Don’t worry, my love, I’m not going to rob you!”, followed by the checkout assistant’s rolling eyes that made me realise how uncomfortable the woman was and how unwarranted – and unwelcome – this attention was.
Improved security
The chip and PIN system rolled out in 2005 is designed to reduce card fraud by doing away with easily-forged signatures. By issuing everyone with special plastic and PINs, it’s much harder for criminals to sneakily solicit your details for a spending splurge.
However, while banks and retailers have done their bit to upgrade technology, we also have to play our part to make it work – and too many card users remain churlishly ignorant, impassive or simply don’t give a fig for the risks.
Last year, some £47.6m was withdrawn from ATMs by fraudsters using cloned or skimmed credit and debit cards and, on top, £44.4m spent on stolen or lost and mislaid cards.
This is no chicken feed, but the toe-curling supermarket scene – an embarrassed shopper unjustly ridiculed for being alert to the security risks from simple “shoulder-surfers” (fraudsters who note an uncovered PIN and later steal or copy the card), as well as the possibility of more elaborate scams involving gangs and tampered handsets, staff or CCTV – suggests many have an attitude that believes otherwise.
Safety first
Falling victim to card fraud isn’t just a major inconvenience, with cancelled plastic and a frustrating need to rely on cash for everything.
It also usually requires you to prove your innocence and although consumer law states very clearly that banks must refund fraudulent chip and PIN transactions, banks have become particularly adept at rebutting such claims.
Increasingly, they argue that the customer must have been “grossly negligent” to have let it happen, and refuse to pay out. (If this does ever happen, complain vehemently to the Financial Ombudsman Service which can demand evidence to the contrary.)
Avoiding such a hassle at all cost should be a key priority for any bank customer – yet plenty of shoppers steamroller on with a blithe disregard for PIN security.
A quick check
Last week, for research purposes of course, I determined to see how many PINs I could pick up simply by shoulder-surfing in cash point queues and at store tills.
During 30 minutes inside a busy shopping centre, I made out the four-digit code in eight out of 10 such situations without any special effort; in most cases, absolutely no attempt was made to cover the key pad when punching in their PIN.
Personal security lapses aren't confined to just chip and PIN; on two separate occasions recently, I listened without much difficulty to a stranger's mobile phone conversation.
In each case, I was able to pick up the key details needed to commit fraud: his name, address, card number, expiry date AND the three-digit security number on the reverse.
Of course, the probability of a fraudster eavesdropping at exactly the moment he openly gave away the keys to his credit card account was pretty low, but such indifference can sadly only boost the odds of falling victim to crime.
This kind of recklessness remains the exception rather than the rule, but it's an unhappy state of affairs that so many are so slapdash with their personal financial data.
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