Fighting Identity Theft: Lessons from the United Kingdom
Source: AARP Policy & Research
“APACS, the United Kingdom (UK) payments association representing card issuers, established a new industry standard in 2004 to reduce the amount of ‘plastic card’ fraud in the UK. This standard, called ‘chip and PIN,’ involves embedding a microchip inside credit and debit cards and requiring that consumers use a secret four-digit personal identification number (PIN) to complete a transaction. Previously, credit cards in the UK were similar to those used in the United States, consisting of a magnetic strip that is swiped through a magnetic reader during a transaction, after which the consumer signs his or her name on a receipt to verify the transaction. Early indications suggest that the chip and PIN method has resulted in substantially less card fraud in the UK.”

This entry was posted on Tuesday, July 4th, 2006 at 1:19 pm and is filed under Crime, Privacy, United Kingdom. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.