Britain branded new fraud capital of Europe

More than seven million people in United Kingdom has been affected by card fraud according to Research from the European Security Transport Association (ESTA) The research found that nearly 20 percent of the adult population in UK has at one time been targeted as part of scam on credit or debt fraud.

This put United kingdom as the new capital card fraud of Europe. with more people likely to be at risk of becoming a victim compared to adults in seven other European Countries polled as part of the survey.

Another Study by the European Commission found that almost a third of card fraud victims are more likely not to be reimbursed for their loss by the Card Servise Provider dispite making a claim to the bank.

The use of card was meant to solve the problem of carrying cash which is a high risk and the introduction of chip and pin was meant to reduce card fraud. It looks as criminals move with technology and there is no hiding place. European Security Transport Association (ESTA) is calling for the retention of cash use while the financil institutions across the continent are pushing for the greater use for non cash payments.

There are many factors that has contributed to the increase of Card fraud, the banks sort to cut cost at the the expense of customers by transfering their call centre to foreign Countries, to mention one is India, that has created many problems. The security of customers has been compromised and we all know that different countries has different level of corruption.

We have seen on our televisions personal data for clients been sold in India. How does the banks deal with such problems and how do they ensure that this data will not end up used, The fact that someone is prepared to buy the data, it goes without reasons that they are buying it for a specific purpose and in most cases to access clients details and commit fraud.

The banks has a duty of care to ensure that they take precautional measure to vet retails industry or the so called business who are authorised by banks as retailers. while on the other hand customers must also take precautional measure to protect the use of there cards. one way would be to reduce the use of the card on telephone purchases unless you are buying an established service .

Use of non cash payment.

While the Financial Institutions are pushing for a non cash payment, the problem is, there are milions of peopes who do not have a bank accounts and there rely on cash, the banks demand some unnecessary details to open an account and this only make life difficult to those who are working and they want to receive there money through the bank or the employer pays direct into a bank account. The majority end up paying into a relative or friend Bank account, if this action is meant to solve crimes, Opening an account does not give problems to criminals. if they can access data been held by the banks , it would be easier for the criminals to have an account.

The banks and the Government must come together and look at ways of dealing with this issue before it gets worse.