“Social security, bank account and credit card numbers are not just data.
In the wrong hands they can wipe out someone’s life savings, wreck their credit and cause financial ruin.”
Melissa Bean, US Representative
Everybody knows by now (or ought to know) that most American credit cards are very vulnerable and susceptible to fraud.
The banks know it, merchants know it and (unless you have been living in the Gobi desert for the last twenty years) most customers know it.
But the American financial establishment is still reluctant to implement the more secure EMV technology. And you guessed it, the main obstacle to this badly needed change is cost.
Banks find it more cost effective to cover fraud-incurred expenses than spend millions to upgrade their networks.
Everybody knows that EMV cards (predominantly used in Europe) are a better way to go.
EMV stands for Europay, MasterCard, Visa. Credit cards using EMV technology are equipped with embedded microprocessor chips that store and protect cardholder data.
A traditional “magnetic stripe” card can be easily copied (skimmed) with a simple and inexpensive card reading device.
According to Time Magazine, “Chip and PIN” cards make skimming impossible because the information that gets scanned is encrypted.
I don’t want to sound paranoid, but fraudsters are lurking everywhere waiting for a chance to pounce.
In restaurants for instance, the waiter will take your card and disappear in the bowels of the establishment. In that short “black hole” period anything can happen, and sometimes it does.
If you use a chip-enabled card, you don’t have to lose sight of it. The waiter will bring a handheld scanner to your table, and all you have to do is slide your smartcard in the device and enter a 4-digit number. And voila!
Even though it has not been widely publicized, some American banks are already offering EMV cards.
The new cards are hybrids with both magnetic stripes and chips. In the future, card issuers will offer chip only cards.
If you want one -especially if you are planning to travel through Europe- you need to ask.
I just applied for such a card.
According to my bank, I should receive it in about 10 days. I am looking forward to it because I use a “magstripe” card rather frequently and I often wonder (like many of us) if every of these transactions are safe.
I will definitely feel more comfortable whenever (?) I will have the chance to use the more secure EMV protocol.
Alain
“Incidentally, the chip technology was first used in France in 1992. Today, there are more than 1 billion chip cards used around the world.
The U.S. is one of the few industrialized nations that (shamefully) have not transitioned to this new technology standard.”
Watch this video of gospel flashmob aboard a Budapest streetcar:
