Chip and Pin Credit Card Thwarted

In the UK the new chip and pin system that was just released by credit card companies was thwarted by criminals. The credit card holders are going to be placed in risk by the fraudsters in the UK because of the chip and pin machines that are supposedly protecting their bank details. Scientists in a recent study found that thieves are going to be able to use the devices that hack into the credit card terminals to access the account and pin numbers of many residents. The fraudsters will be able to use the information they steal in order to create counterfeit cards, which allow them to withdraw money from ATM’s all over the world. One person who did the study was Professor Ross Anderson who is a security engineer. He and his team decided to test the chip and pin system while at Cambridge University.

The Professor and his team believe that the technology for the chip and pin system is unsophisticated. The device is extremely small and there for the consumer and the cashier cannot see how the criminals are actually stealing the information. The chip and pin machines were just introduced in 2006. These systems are a means of replacing the signatures that the banks and other shops need in order to protect the details. The reports coming in from various sources are finding that fraud supposedly has decreased, but this may not be true in the future.

In December over 80,000 pounds were stolen from various residents in Houghton on the Hill. 1500 residents were actually affected by the criminal element. The fraudsters cloned the bank cards via a petrol station in the town and were using them all over the world.

One person in the UK who used to work for the police was herself a victim of fraud. Her Egg credit card account was infiltrated and she had to dispute several cash withdrawals. It was difficult to clear her name of these charges with the bank and it was not until Professor Anderson actually did a little research that he was able to find evidence to dispute the charges and bear witness that she was a victim of credit card fraud.

As part of the research performed by the professor and his team the chip and pin machines where taken apart when they purchased the same model from eBay of all places. The fact that the used machines or even the machines at all can be found on eBay lends credence to the study done by the professor. After all if one person can take the machines a part to discover how they work it cannot be too hard for the criminal element to do the same. When the machine was taken apart it was easy to see just how one could hack into the information stored in the credit card machine. The companies believe that it is not economical to the fraudster to steal the information and that the systems will be safe, but that may change. For now it seems the best credit cards are going to be the ones you don’t use with the chip and pin system.

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