I sometimes wonder why the United States is lagging the rest of the world in rolling out a chip standard for their credit cards.<p>These sort of exploits are significantly more difficult in other parts of the world that have switched over - the United States use of the outdated "magnetic stripe" for security is not only putting american consumers at risk (Yes, I know, you can always challenge a charge, IF you notice it sneak onto your card, AND if you got to the effort of getting it revoked. Go talk to someone who's been the victim of identity/credit card theft to see how much FUN that is) - it's also putting all the other countries that have to continue to support legacy card systems.<p>At the very least, the credit card agencies in the United States could start rolling out the Card Machines to NEW businesses, in preparation for the eventual upgrade of consumers.<p>My only guess is that they've done a RISK/REWARD assessment, and decided that the cost of upgrading all of these systems is more expensive than what they are losing to fraud.
"Tampered PIN pads were discovered from stores in the following states: CA, CT, FL, IL, MA, NJ, NY, PA, RI. A complete list of specific stores follows."<p><a href="http://www.barnesandnobleinc.com/press_releases/10_23_12_Important_Customer_Notice.html" rel="nofollow">http://www.barnesandnobleinc.com/press_releases/10_23_12_Imp...</a>
For the first time since I've had credit cards, I've had my cards cloned and used to make purcahses twice over the past couple of months. It's a major hassle because I have auto pay for reoccurring bills (phone, internet, electric, etc...).<p>It seems to me that this type of activity is on the uptick.
Recently I had fraudulent charges made on my Wells Fargo debit card. That card had no history (never used at ATMs or Merchants), and even the lady I talked to from Wells Fargo fraud dept was surprised.<p>The only place I've used it was at the local Wells Fargo branch office with their pads to take out cash out of my checking account.<p>I bet they have a similar issue. Those pads are networked to their systems, all running Windows, it wouldn't take much to craft something together to pull those #s out.
I wonder how long it will take for people to start thinking that shopping online is actually safer than shopping in person.<p>I remember how reluctant people were during the "dot com boom" to use their credit cards online. Now I am reluctant to use public ATMs, even my own bank's ATM.
I remember there being a really interesting story about a Turkish criminal manufacturing tons of ATM number pad overlays in Kingpin:<p><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Kingpin-Billion-Dollar-Cybercrime-Underground-ebook/dp/B004IK8Q2M/ref=dp_kinw_strp_1" rel="nofollow">http://www.amazon.com/Kingpin-Billion-Dollar-Cybercrime-Unde...</a><p>That whole book is full of bizarre and amazing stories about hacking and credit card fraud. It's well written, too; the author was a hacker so the technical descriptions aren't painfully generalized as they too often are. Highly suggested.
Wow I was wondering why Chase randomly sent me a warning and a new debit card a few weeks ago. I had made no unique purchases aside from coffee and books from Barnes and Noble and initially thought the new card from Chase was a fake.
At stores like the one at NY's Union Square, the cashiers never leave their stations from 10am to 10pm. I wonder how this could have been done so quickly as to not cause suspicion. Perhaps there might have been some internal cooperation?