Don’t give your debit or credit card chip & PIN to anyone
Published: 1 September 2009
By Diane Ray 1 Comment
Updated: 1 September 2009
Despite the risk of falling victim to ID fraud, over 8 million Brits have given their debit or credit card chip and PIN details to someone else – and then 24% of these have become the victim of fraud.
Alarmingly, LV= home insurance research shows that over 30% of Brits have been asked to pay for goods or take money from a cash machine on behalf of someone else – using their chip and PIN details.
With so many people being affected by ID fraud, LV= home insurance now provides free access to an ID Fraud Helpline.
The LV=research shows that ‘hotspots’ for ID fraud include websites, petrol stations and cash points.
Critically if a card owner has shared their chip and PIN details a bank may not issue any refunds in the event of the card being used by a fraudster.
This is because by sharing the information the owner will have been deemed to act ‘without reasonable care’.
It seems that whilst the chip and PIN system was introduced to increase card security for many it has had just the opposite effect – around 10% of card owners say they are now more lax with their details than previously.
As well as your chip and PIN, you need to protect all your personal information – our article ‘Personal Information – Protect it!‘ explains more.
If you want to compare home insurance policies from different providers and see what extras are included you can do this quickly and easily using a comparison website, such as Tescocompare.com or Gocompare.com.
Plastic card fraud is soaring. According tothe UK Payments Administration Ltd (formerly APACS), fraud at UK ATM’s climbed by 31% in 2008. No mention is made of fraud committed at overseas ATM’s in the report where card fraud stood at an alarming £230 Million.
The lowest common denominator in ATM fraud is a PIN. If a genuine or cloned card is used at an ATM, the fraudster must have the PIN.
The media, including the BBC TV Watchdog programme to the Times and Observer are all warning consumers that victims of PIN based fraud are not being re-imbursed, as they are being judged (without proof) to have been negligent with their PIN.
There’s a wonderful way of reducing personal risk for PIN based fraud. BIN your PIN (with your credit cards) and get yourself a CHIP & SIGNATURE Cards. No PIN means you can never be accused of being ‘careless’ with it, therefore no liability.