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Britt Erica Tunick is an award winning financial journalist who has spent the past 17 years writing about virtually every aspect of finance. She has mastered the art of boiling down complicated financial topics for readers to understand. |
Your EMV chipped credit cards are still vulnerable to online fraud. Why EMV Chips Won’t Eliminate Credit Card Fraud By Britt Erica Tunick Odds are good that by now at least one of the credit cards or debit cards in your wallet is now equipped with the new EMV security chip, which makes it more difficult for criminals to steal credit card information. But don’t assume your credit card information is now 100% secure, because it’s not. As of October 1, 2015 banks and credit card issuers who haven’t provided their cardholders with cards secured with EMV security chips (which stands for Europay, Mastercard and Visa) will be liable for any fraudulent charges made on those cards and will assume more liability if data is breached. Similarly, retailers without EMV compliant credit card machines will be held liable for any fraudulent transactions that involve credit cards with EMV chips. What this means for you is that criminals who obtain your credit card number can no longer use it to duplicate your card and run up as many charges as possible before your fraud protection kicks in. That’s because EMV chips are essentially mini computers that change the data on your card each time they are used, unlike traditional magnetic strips where the data never changes. The good news is that when it comes to in-person credit card purchases, the only way anyone can use your cards with EMV chips is if they physically steal them from you. But the bad news is that anyone who has your card information will still be able to use it for online purchases just as before. And, as a result of this change, industry experts predict that online fraud is going to increase substantially in the coming years. Given this reality, it is more important than ever to keep close tabs on the purchases charged to your credit cards by monitoring them every few days and not simply waiting for your monthly statements to arrive. Additionally, make sure you never enter your credit card information on any website that is not secure, which means the data you enter is encrypted before it is sent to the party on the other end. To tell if a website is secure, make sure the web address begins with https://, particularly the payment page, and look for a padlock symbol in your web browser. A few other steps you should take to reduce the likelihood or extent of fraud on your accounts include:
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