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Visa Claims Chip Cards Reduced Fraud By 70% (arstechnica.com)

An anonymous reader quotes Ars Technica: Although only 59 percent of US storefronts have terminals that accept chip cards, fraud has dropped 70 percent from September 2015 to December 2017 for those retailers that have completed the chip upgrade, according to Visa.

There are a few ways to interpret those numbers. First, it seems like two years has resulted in staggeringly little progress in encouraging storefronts to shift from magnetic stripe to chip-embedded cards, given that in early 2016, 37 percent of US storefronts were able to process chip cards. On the other hand, fraud dropping 70 percent for retailers who install chip cards seems great. Chip-embedded cards aren't un-hackable, but they do make it harder to steal card numbers en masse as we saw in the Target's 2013 breach.

186 comments

  1. only 59 percent of US storefronts have terminals by charliemerritt03 · · Score: 1

    Seems I heard that Oct the Chip Readers were mandatory. Seems not yet - can anyone fill in these blanks?

  2. But they don't tell you by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Fraud with Card-not-present (e.g., buying things online) is going up.

    1. Re:But they don't tell you by ShanghaiBill · · Score: 1

      Fraud with Card-not-present (e.g., buying things online) is going up.

      They don't care about that because in any disputed CNP transaction they can just screw the merchant with a chargeback.

      It costs Visa/MC nothing, and the merchant has no recourse.

    2. Re:But they don't tell you by AK+Marc · · Score: 1

      I don't see how. I bought a game online, and my transaction was refused and the card deactivated. And that's usual behavior for me.

    3. Re:But they don't tell you by AK+Marc · · Score: 1

      A fraudulent charge isn't a "chargeback". A chargeback is when the merchant lies about sending the item, demands full payment for nothing sent, and whinges for decades about chargebacks ending their fullproof plan for profit. An unauthorized charge is *never* a chargeback, even if the merchant still loses money on the deal.

  3. Gas stations by PhrostyMcByte · · Score: 1

    Now we have one great place left for skimmers to set up: gas pumps. I have yet to see one that is NFC capable or that included a chip reader.

    And in the past three years, I've had my card skimmed twice -- it's become annoying enough that I ended up relegating a single card to gas station use, so that when it gets skimmed again I won't need to cancel any sort of auto-pay setup against it.

    It's crazy to me that credit companies don't get stricter with gas station owners.

    1. Re:Gas stations by Mashiki · · Score: 2

      Every gas station in Canada uses chip & pin, most were rolled out a year and change before it became mandatory up here. The real problem up here since everything is chip & pin is actually banks and ATM's that are owned by banks but deployed in variety stores and so on. Hitting banks is the big one right now, the fakes are getting damned elaborate too replacing the entire front bezel to pull the card data and pin.

      --
      Om, nomnomnom...
    2. Re: Gas stations by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Isn't the zip code an amazing secret? Maybe the thief is not from the neighborhood.

    3. Re:Gas stations by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Every gas station in Canada uses chip & pin

      Sadly down here in the USA, nothing uses chip & pin.
      We only get just the chip alone so it can be read and skimmed just as easily as the mag stripe can be.

      One reason we still have holdouts converting to this system is because in essence the credit networks are forcing the merchants to pay for replacing their hardware with new chip readers that won't be any more secure, and are very aware that in a few years the credit networks will then push chip&pin and force them to pay for the upgrade all over again.

      So the merchants, quite reasonably, are avoiding spending money on something that gives them no extra protection and will be obsoleted in the near future.

    4. Re:Gas stations by rowls · · Score: 1

      I am afraid that you are absolutely wrong. Chip cards without signature most definitely prevent skimming. The card number is not read from the cards mag stripe. Data including the card number is encrypted using the chips and sent to the issuer to verify fully encrypted. Chip cards without PIN's allow physical cards to be stolen and used fraudulently. The CC issuers have decided to continue paying to cover this type of fraud instead of forcing PIN's on Americans.

    5. Re:Gas stations by execthis · · Score: 1

      I find it interesting to note that it's the year 2018 and humans are still working on ways to be able to conduct financial transactions without fraud or theft. There must be something that, how something that seems like it would be such a simple thing actually is not...

    6. Re:Gas stations by jrumney · · Score: 1

      The card number is not read from the cards mag stripe.

      How do you control the skimming device to ensure that?

    7. Re:Gas stations by omnichad · · Score: 1

      You don't insert the card fully into the chip reader, so the mag stripe isn't read even if a skimmer was placed there.

    8. Re:Gas stations by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The card number is not read from the cards mag stripe.

      How do you control the skimming device to ensure that?

      Um, well you see, if you're not sliding your card through the reader...

    9. Re:Gas stations by taustin · · Score: 1

      I've seen gas pumps with NFC. More than once. Not universal yet, but it's getting more common.

      (I suspect it's because California is so oppressive to gas stations anyway that the pumps get replaced a lot more often than most places anyway.)

    10. Re:Gas stations by taustin · · Score: 1

      Never seen a gas pump where that's actually possible. You put the chip card into the same slot as you put the mag strip card, and you shove it in exactly as far - all the way.

    11. Re: Gas stations by Guitargeek86 · · Score: 1

      Actually a local station had a skinner reading the mag strip as the card was out in for the chip to be read and using a camera for the pin. So until the mag is gone fraud will still happen.

    12. Re:Gas stations by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      How do you control the skimming device to ensure that?

      Sand off the magnetic stripe. Keep another card with a stripe - if you need magnetic stripe for a few transactions.

      They can't skim a stripe that isn't there. Such a card is chip only, or no transaction. There is no need for a stripe when you can use the chip.

    13. Re:Gas stations by jrumney · · Score: 1

      I saw it for the first time about a month ago, but it didn't actually work when I tried it. I suspect someone forgot to adjust the pre-auth amount to be under the limit for NFC transactions.

    14. Re:Gas stations by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The solution is Bitcoin!

      Haha just kidding.

    15. Re: Gas stations by evenmoreconfused · · Score: 1

      No card here in Canada gets inserted all the way into the reader.

      --
      No. Well...maybe. Actually, yes. It really just depends.
    16. Re: Gas stations by evenmoreconfused · · Score: 1

      Actually I take that back. It would be more correct to say that no card gets fully inserted in gas pumps in stations near here.

      --
      No. Well...maybe. Actually, yes. It really just depends.
    17. Re:Gas stations by Junta · · Score: 1

      The weird part is the proprietary gas payment apps in lieu of putting in chip readers.

      Like if I want to pay for gas with my phone at a shell station, I would *have* to have a Chase credit card.. for some reason.

      Exxon has a more open ended payment app, and to their credit it works... most of the time.

      --
      XML is like violence. If it doesn't solve the problem, use more.
    18. Re:Gas stations by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Every gas station in Canada uses chip & pin, most were rolled out a year and change before it became mandatory up here.

      Which is hilarious because chip & pin readers present more of an explosion risk than membrane keypad cell phones ever did (especially as they're placed directly above the gas pump nozzles).

    19. Re:Gas stations by bobbutts · · Score: 1

      There's no perfect solution. Paper and metal currencies offer good anonymity and ease of use but there are issues with trust and they cannot be sent over distance easily. Credit cards are fast and easy, but they are not free, require a central authority to clear transactions, and usually the private keys are revealed during each transaction. Crypto-currencies allow transactions without a central authority, but offer no recourse for reversing charges and there are currently many limits as to what they can be exchanged for and where.

    20. Re:Gas stations by AK+Marc · · Score: 1

      Every gas pump here lets you hold onto the card with two fingers the whole time. Only ATMs "eat" the card completely. Everyone else leaves the card sticking out.

    21. Re:Gas stations by AK+Marc · · Score: 1

      NFC has no limit. NFC without PIN is limited to $80 for me. So the gas pump authorizing more than that requires NFC plus PIN. NFC is contactless chip. The limit for my NFC is the chip limit (the card limit).

    22. Re:Gas stations by viperidaenz · · Score: 1

      I have never seen a pump without a chip reader.
      Probably because I live in a modern country like New Zealand, where chip cards have been widespread for well over a decade. Some of them don't even have a magstripe reader.
      I did have a magstripe only card back in the 90 and early 2000's though.

    23. Re:Gas stations by viperidaenz · · Score: 2

      At least some cards with chips store the card number on the chip unencrypted.
      In a previous job my keyboard had a card reader on it for reading certificates from ID cards. I played around with Java's smartcardio package and read my credit card. Saw the card number right there. Some also give out the number to NFC readers.

      The bit that prevents fraud is not keeping the card number secret, it's signing tokens with asymmetric encryption. You can't read the private keys from the chip.

    24. Re:Gas stations by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      In Sweden (and I bet many other countries) we now have phone-to-phone transfer.

      Your phone number works as an identifier that is then connected to your bank account. A two-factor identification is used (and common app that we use to identify ourselves for taxes, bank business etc.) for every transaction.

      It is in no way bullet proof, but it's cheap ("free" for private citizens, aka the banks pay for it with money earned from costumers), easy, fast and secure enough (attacker needs to clone 2-factor program and know your code).

      We also use this 2-factor identifier for many online purchases.

  4. I know how I interpret this. by Gravis+Zero · · Score: 0

    fraud has dropped 70 percent from September 2015 to December 2017 for those retailers that have completed the chip upgrade, according to Visa.

    For years credit card companies allowed people to be defrauded because it was cheaper for them. When they were forced to use better security they tell us "Surprise, it's more secure! Who knew? Nobody knew!" Assholes, all of them.

    --
    Anons need not reply. Questions end with a question mark.
    1. Re: I know how I interpret this. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      For years credit card companies allowed people to be defrauded because it was cheaper for them. When they were forced to use better security they tell us "Surprise, it's more secure! Who knew? Nobody knew!" Assholes, all of them.

      At no stage were credit card companies 'forced' to use better security.

      It was an act they chose to take, that is beneficial to almost all.

      And as always it is a cost/benefit decision.

      Why the vitriol? Did your abusive dad work for a credit card company?

    2. Re:I know how I interpret this. by SlaveToTheGrind · · Score: 1

      For years credit card companies allowed people to be defrauded because it was cheaper for them.

      Actually, for years the major credit card companies have had zero-liability policies for fraud. Do you own/use a credit card?

    3. Re:I know how I interpret this. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      For years credit card companies allowed people to be defrauded because it was cheaper for them.

      Well, not *people*... the merchant or the card issuer would end up paying for the credit card fraud under the old system.

      The cardholder's max liability was set by law at $50, and almost always that was waived by the card issuer.

    4. Re:I know how I interpret this. by AK+Marc · · Score: 1

      No, the limit for "card use after reported stolen" is $50/$0. But unauthorized card use with card in hand was unlimited liability for the cardholder. Live in a dorm? Got your details stolen by a roommate and they bought stuff and shipped it to your address? You didn't report it stolen, and you didn't keep it safe. Your fault. Also it was literally shipped to you so they begin an investigation into you for fraud. I've seen it happen.

      Your negligence, real or asserted, removes all limits. You are free to sue if you think their assessment was unfair, but you'll never win.

  5. Re: only 59 percent of US storefronts have termina by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Seems I heard that Oct the Chip Readers were mandatory. Seems not yet - can anyone fill in these blanks?

    They've been "mandatory" for a while now. But many of them don't work.

    A group of retailers filed a lawsuit over it but I don't think it has gone anywhere.

  6. Re:So full of shit by zm · · Score: 2

    When they first deployed the chip cards, I had mine for all of two weeks before it was compromised by the wait staff at one of the restaurants I frequent :|

    So the wait staff managed to duplicate the chip in your card? Where do you eat?

    --
    Sig ?
  7. Re: only 59 percent of US storefronts have termina by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Meaning in Canada, we've had cards with chips in them for more than 10 years already and pretty much every single stores have a chip reader and very few actually accept magnetic cards anymore.

  8. Re:So full of shit by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Taco Bell

  9. Crypto reduces from by 100% by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    As a business owner who takes credit cards and crypto exclusively I can say we have had 0% of crypto transactions turn out to be fraudulent. You might not like crypto currencies for one reason or another- but I love em. I also have increased our profits by about 33% because of crypto currencies. Please- if you want to get rid of your crypto spend it at my business!

    1. Re:Crypto reduces from by 100% by jtara · · Score: 1

      Please- if you want to get rid of your crypto spend it at my business!

      Oh? And what kind of illicit business is that?

    2. Re:Crypto reduces from by 100% by Khyber · · Score: 1

      "Please- if you want to get rid of your crypto spend it at my business!"

      >wants people to spend their crypto at their business
      >doesn't reveal what that business might be

      Sounds more like you're the fraud.

      --
      Still waiting on Serviscope_minor to wake up to fucking reality and realize that Jessica Price isn't going to fuck him.
    3. Re:Crypto reduces from by 100% by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      They also take credit cards, so it must be in a state where it is legal.

    4. Re:Crypto reduces from by 100% by SirSlud · · Score: 1

      credit cards and crypto exclusively

      you have a weird understanding of the word exclusively

      --
      "Old man yells at systemd"
    5. Re:Crypto reduces from by 100% by jargonburn · · Score: 1
      Not really. From the dictionary:

      to the exclusion of others; only; solely.

      By defining a group of payment methods that they accept "exclusively," they are simultaneously defining the group of payment methods that they do NOT accept (i.e. everything else).

    6. Re:Crypto reduces from by 100% by viperidaenz · · Score: 1

      How do you find the convience of $20 tranaction fees and 10+ minutes transaction confirmation times?
      Or you're not using bitcoin, but some other crypto "currency" that's about to fail?

  10. Re: only 59 percent of US storefronts have termina by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

    They aren't mandatory but they do charge higher fees to process the transaction if you don't use the chip. Online card purchases still act like swipe cards since all you have is the basic info so it's not like they can just force all transactions to work like using the chip.

  11. Re:So full of shit by Mashiki · · Score: 2

    So you handed them your pin, and it's their fault? You understand how this works right? You plug your card into the terminal, then enter your pin. If it was compromised, then it was a plain old skim because the business hadn't rolled over to chip & pin and were exempt from requiring *you* from entering it.

    --
    Om, nomnomnom...
  12. Well, yea... by jtara · · Score: 2

    "Martha? Would you ring up Woodrow 2-4-2 and ask the president of the bank to wire $10,000 to Sparky up in Reno out of my account? It's 5-4-7-9. Thanks!

  13. I call that by oldgraybeard · · Score: 0

    what the bull leaves out in the pasture! I will dissect anything I purchase if I decide to! If I can not I do not want it in my life.

    Just my 2 cents ;)

  14. Re: only 59 percent of US storefronts have termina by Woldscum · · Score: 2

    They are not mandatory. BUT the retailer is now on the hook for fraud. Not the CC co. or the processor. The retailer also must buy the new equipment. If the CC co.s really wanted to stop fraud. They would provide the readers themselves. Payback would be less than a year.

  15. Re: only 59 percent of US storefronts have termina by Mattatron · · Score: 5, Insightful

    But they DON'T want to prevent fraud, they want to prevent liability, which they they have.

  16. A little late by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Why does Visa need to make this claim now? The rest of the world has had this technology for over a decade, wasnâ(TM)t there already enough data? Why would the US roll out be any different?

    1. Re:A little late by omnichad · · Score: 1

      If you didn't realize, Visa is part of the group that rolled out chip cards (EMV - Europay, MasterCard, and Visa) in the first place. They are still trying to convince the merchants and processors that are dragging their heels, because that's what people here always seem to do. Everyone is still in denial that chip cards are an important transition, let alone adding a pin.

    2. Re: A little late by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Because America is a technologically backwards shithole.

    3. Re:A little late by DarenN · · Score: 1

      The reason for poor uptake is an argument between the merchants, acquiring banks, CC networks, and issuers. Basically, most of the merchants lease the equipment from the acquirers, and the the acquirers are the only ones who didn't actually suffer from fraud because the liability largely fell on the Network or Issuer. However, the Acquirers own all the equipment and don't want to pay for an update. There is a double cost for them there as they both have to update hardware (the terminals themselves) and the software (as their systems must be EMV enabled). The Merchants were not being impacted at the same levels as the network or issuers so there was no pressure on the acquirers to change.

      The liability shift that occurred last year basically put the loss on the merchant if they don't support Chip, in the hopes that they would pressure the acquirers. It's happening, but slowly. Large organizations that own their own POS stuff have mostly switched over to chip and signature. This has largely cut out Card Present fraud where it's used because it is basically impossible to clone a chip card. Stolen cards can still be used however, until they're cancelled. PIN would largely eliminate this also.

      EMV doesn't really address Card Not Present (such as internet) fraud and won't until everyone has a chip reader attached to their computer.

      --
      Rational thought is the only true freedom
  17. Re:So full of shit by SNRatio · · Score: 3, Interesting

    In the US typically it is chip only, no PIN. Plus the card could have just been swiped. As pointed out in the article, 41% of storefronts don't have chipreaders.

  18. Re: only 59 percent of US storefronts have termina by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Can I please have it this way instead? "Visa caused 70% of fraud by not implementing decades old system earlier than they did."

    The glass can be half empty.

  19. Re: So full of shit by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    In the US, very few chip cards come with chip PIN's (these are distinct from credit card ATM PIN's for cash advances); most have you sign something or nothing at all.

  20. Bad assumption! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Most USA issued CC's are chip and signature. No PIN is required.

    1. Re:Bad assumption! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Most USA issued CC's are chip and signature. No PIN is required.

      Well that's entirely useless.

    2. Re:Bad assumption! by EzInKy · · Score: 1

      Signatures aren't required any more.

      https://www.creditcards.com/cr...

      --
      Time is what keeps everything from happening all at once.
    3. Re:Bad assumption! by rowls · · Score: 1

      No, its extremely useful. The fraud rate using stolen physical cards is fairly low. What the CC companies and issuers were really worried about were the data breaches at major retailers that were exposing 100's of thousands or millions of credit card numbers at a time. Once the numbers were stolen, generating fake cards and going shopping was very easy. Chip cards prevent that type of fraud. For consumers, the lack of a PIN means that the issuer covers you for losses if you loose your card. With Chip + PIN, if you are unfortunate enough to loose both your Chip and your PIN, as unlikely as that might be, then you are f*ck'd.

    4. Re:Bad assumption! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Signatures aren't required any more.

      https://www.creditcards.com/cr...

      And when they are required, you can scribble nonsense and it doesn't matter.

    5. Re:Bad assumption! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      if you loose your card

      I hate it when my card is the opposite of "tight."

      then you are f*ck'd

      It is okay, you can swear. Also, the apostrophe is not used to make a word past tense (nor is it used to make a word plural). The correct word here is "fucked".

    6. Re:Bad assumption! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You forgot about the use of apostrophes in contractions, like isn't, haven't, you're etc.; short for is not, have not., and you are.

      Although I don't see the point of trying to contract fucked into fuck'd; it's the same number of characters to type. Perhaps it's easier to write a ' than an e when you're writing out long hand with quill and ink on parchment or some such thing.

  21. 70 percent versus 70 percent by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Coincidentally, didn't the number of retail card terminals in stores not yet shut down by Amazon has also declined by nearly the exact same percentage during nearly the same time period?

  22. Re:So full of shit by Mashiki · · Score: 1

    So the US is still 10-15 years behind Canada then is what you're saying. Up here if you don't enter a pin, you can't complete the transaction. I also mentioned the cloning bit in my comment, which makes the original posters point about "omg chip & pin is a failure, it was all their fault" again worthless. Chip & pin didn't fail in that case which is what they were trying to make as a point.

    --
    Om, nomnomnom...
  23. America still in the dark ages by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    A decade on and America still isn't chip and pin. Meanwhile the rest of the world has moved on to the next thing.https://www.cnbc.com/2017/10/08/china-is-living-the-future-of-mobile-pay-right-now.html

  24. Re: So full of shit by Mashiki · · Score: 2

    In the US, very few chip cards come with chip PIN's (these are distinct from credit card ATM PIN's for cash advances); most have you sign something or nothing at all.

    Here's how it works up here. Bank card + pin = direct withdrawal from your bank account(see Interac system). CC, again requires a pin. CC+Pin = billing directly to your CC. You don't sign for things up here unless there's a widespread terminal failure and the company still has an old fashioned carbon-copy style credit device available.

    --
    Om, nomnomnom...
  25. Re:So full of shit by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    which makes the original posters point about "omg chip & pin is a failure, it was all their fault" again worthless.

    Go re-read the original post again.

    When they first deployed the chip cards, I had mine for all of two weeks before it was compromised

    There wasn't any original posters point about chip and pin, let alone a claim that chip & pin failed or worked or did anything.

    It says chip card, and yes I will add to that: the chip WITHOUT PIN system has failed, to no ones surprise.

    The first mention that chip and pin has failed came from your post. The second mention of chip and pin is also from you and quoted at the very top of my post here.
    Literally you are the only person that used the words "chip & pin is a failure"

  26. Re:So full of shit by Gavagai80 · · Score: 1

    Why would a thief bother duplicating the chip, when they can do all the online purchases they'd like with just the name, number, expiry and CVV?

    --
    This space intentionally left blank
  27. Re:So full of shit by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    It says chip card, and yes I will add to that: the chip WITHOUT PIN system has failed, to no ones surprise.

    Idiot.

    somewhere my card will be out of sight for any length of time.

    They didn't use the chip system in the US(requires signature). Didn't use the pin system. They were compromised by swiping.

  28. The USA banking is a couple of decades behind.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    ....which really surprises me.

    I mean....who the hell has even used a cheque for what?...15 years now ? I haven't even seen one in decades......most kids don't even know what they look like.

    CHIP+PIN is even old hat. I use Paywave mostly, for when I have a card with me, and contactless/cardless for when I just want to grab some cash and I don't have my card.

    Sending money between banks/accounts using BSB/Account number is commonplace. Every Sunday I sit down, log onto internet banking, pay all my bills (even to just normal people) via the net, then I'm done. Takes all over 10 minutes.

    Pay my landscaper guy ?..no problem...just transfer the money straight to his account.......bang, done. Pay my petsitter ?, send straight to her...bang, done. Pay my utility bills ?....same deal.....done.

    The real question is, why is the USA so backwards on these things ?

  29. Chip and Sig was designed to target one thing by alphad0g · · Score: 1

    Chip and signature in the USA was designed to combat card skimming and cloning of mag stripes - it can't stop other kinds of fraud. Yes, it can help prevent fraud of stored data as chip data is different then mag stripe data - but the root of the fraud is cloned mag stripe data - often from skimmers.

    If no terminals accept mag stripe, then cloned cards won't work. Someone can still copy the data off the front and back of card visually, and they can still clone the mag stripe. But then the fraud is reduced to Card not present (that won't change with internet and phone orders) and mag strip fraud will go away if all terminals require chip.

    Chip and PIN is used to combat card theft, but that is only a tiny part of fraud. The credit card companies are going after what makes the most sense. And in the USA most people have multiple cards, so they have to figure out how to give all those cards PINs - not an easy problem to solve.

    1. Re:Chip and Sig was designed to target one thing by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
    2. Re:Chip and Sig was designed to target one thing by jrumney · · Score: 1

      Chip and signature in the USA was designed to combat card skimming and cloning of mag stripes

      Adding a chip has absolutely no effect on card skimming. The only way to combat that is to remove the mag-stripe, but for backwards compatibility, I'm not aware of anywhere in the world that has done that yet.

      Once your mag-stripe data is captured, someone somewhere else in the world (where the backwards compatibility will kick in automatically, because the card is foreign and can't be expected to keep up with local standards) will clone the data onto a magstripe only card, and use it to withdraw money at an ATM.

    3. Re:Chip and Sig was designed to target one thing by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Until they remove the mag strip from credit cards. Chip and pin/signature does ZERO to prevent card fraud. If your card still has a mag strip on it someone can skim it.

      You know how those terminals will tell you that your card is a chip card and to please insert it to complete the transaction, if you swipe it instead. Well that is controlled by a single bit in the mag strip that says this is a chip card.

      All the person who skimmed your data has to do is flip that bit to a non-chip card. Write the mag strip out to a clone card and they now have a card that will not prompt to insert it to use the chip function. I have no idea if europe's version works the same. but the whole system is a total farce until that mag script is gone. or they come up with some more secure way to determine if a swiped card has a chip or not, you know like a preauth with the CC company. CC company tells the terminal hey this card we issued has a chip, use it.

      Hell if you wanted you could get yourself a card reader/writer, read out your mag strip rewrite it with the chip bit flipped and not have to deal with those pesky slow chip terminals.

    4. Re:Chip and Sig was designed to target one thing by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Are Americans really too stupid to work a PIN?
      It's probably too late now, by the time they are rolled out they will be obsolete anyway. Just use qr codes and mobile phones, then you can just pay anyone like in China.

    5. Re:Chip and Sig was designed to target one thing by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      or they come up with some more secure way to determine if a swiped card has a chip or not, you know like a preauth with the CC company. CC company tells the terminal hey this card we issued has a chip, use it.

      Won't work, unfortunately. The majority of Chip & Pin terminals I've come across will still do offline authorisation when the phone lines are down or they can't otherwise contact the bank (e.g.: systems are down during a software upgrade). I assume it's the bank issuing the terminals accepting liability during these events.

    6. Re:Chip and Sig was designed to target one thing by AK+Marc · · Score: 1

      And the ATM withdrawal will fail and lock the card and the account. Bob in Toledo, who has never left OH, is suddenly withdrawing daily limit in Ukraine? That'll lock the card down. Bob gets a new card in the mail in 2 days, and Ivan the Russian hacker gets nothing.

      With the wide-spread hacks into large retailers, the transactions are looked at with a microscope. Purchases under $10 have an 80% chance of locking out my card, and in places the card company knows I am (small transactions to "test" stolen cards are common). They don't wait for you to hit your limit anymore. Lock first, ask questions later.

    7. Re: Chip and Sig was designed to target one thing by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yet banks in other countries serm to have no problems assigning a four digit code to every card they give out. Maybe it isn't as hard as you think...

  30. Re:So full of shit by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    The chips are nearly impossible to duplicate. If you had technology to clone one secretly in a minute or two you could probably make far more money by selling that than you could steal from credit cards.

    Of course the chip is absolutely not needed to run up huge fraudulent charges on a credit card, so the whole thing is kind of silly.

    The technology exists to read the credit card chip over the internet, but maybe they think the cost of tens of millions of card readers would be more than the cost of fraud for as far into the future as investors care about?

  31. Re:The USA banking is a couple of decades behind.. by omnichad · · Score: 1

    For the bank info, the problem is that account numbers are treated as the sacred piece of info. You pull money with a routing and account number and protect those numbers like a credit card number. Everywhere else, banking works on a push basis where the account number is merely a destination. It's all about legacy systems and backward compatibility.

  32. so the question is, visa.. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    why the fuck haven't fees gone down?

  33. Re:So full of shit by LordKronos · · Score: 1

    You don't even need to do online purchases. After 2 years, the chips on 2 of my cards are so flaky that they often don't work. It works every now an then, but usually it ends up telling me to reinsert the card, then after the 3rd failed chip read it tells me just to swipe it. Never once has a cashier given it a second though and asked to see the card or ID. They just act like it's routine (which wouldn't surprise me if it were). So really all they need to do is clone your card onto a card with an intentionally defective chip and they're back in business as usual

  34. Re:So full of shit by Strider- · · Score: 1

    That’s why restaurants use portable card terminals. The card never leaves your sight.

    --
    ...si hoc legere nimium eruditionis habes...
  35. Re:So full of shit by Jason1729 · · Score: 2

    Why would your card ever be out of sight at a restaurant (or anywhere)? The chip processor is a handheld wireless device about 1.5 x 3 x 6 inches. The card slides into the bottom and you take the whole device to privately enter your pin.

  36. It's easy to speed up the rollout by viperidaenz · · Score: 1

    Shift the risk. Make merchants with no chip capability liable for fraud.

    1. Re:It's easy to speed up the rollout by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      uh.. that's exactly how it works. liability shifted to from issuers to merchants when merchant does not have a chip reader.

    2. Re:It's easy to speed up the rollout by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      They already have

  37. Re:The USA banking is a couple of decades behind.. by viperidaenz · · Score: 1

    cards are starting to get old now
    I use Android Pay. As far as the terminal is concerned, my phone is a Visa Paywave card.

    While all the terminals in New Zealand support NFC, a lot of merchants don't have the option enabled as the transaction fees are lightly higher. Some don't accept credit cards at all, as debit cards have no transaction fees.

  38. Re:So full of shit by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Use Apple Pay. Then you don't have to use the chip reader.

  39. Then they should give better rates by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    To return the over charge to consumers that paid that fraud.

  40. Re: only 59 percent of US storefronts have termina by silverkniveshotmail. · · Score: 1

    Meaning in Canada, we've had cards with chips in them for more than 10 years already and pretty much every single stores have a chip reader and very few actually accept magnetic cards anymore.

    I never had a problem with my magnetic US credit card in BC or Quebec.

  41. Re:So full of shit by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Why would your card ever be out of sight at a restaurant (or anywhere)? The chip processor is a handheld wireless device about 1.5 x 3 x 6 inches. The card slides into the bottom and you take the whole device to privately enter your pin.

    I go out to eat fairly regularly at a number of restaurants..Of the very few restaurants I frequent that do have chip readers, (mostly chain/franchise types in the northern Midwest US) only a handful have rolled out chip reader terminals and those are all, every one, a small-tablet sized appliance physically attached to the cash register. I imagine the smaller, more portable, wireless types cost more and/or are more recent models.

    I always wait and pay at the register on the way out, I never allow wait staff to walk away with my card. Also, because many of the chip reader terminals in this area that do exist are very unreliable so at least half the time I end up having to swipe & PIN anyway, I use my card much less in favor of cash transactions now.

    I think at least some of the reduction in CC fraud reported in TFA can be accounted for by people using cards less and so there is less opportunity for criminals to obtain CC details.

  42. Now if only... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I could, A, use chip and pin around the world with my US based debit and credit cards and, B, every single place in the US that had a card reader had chip based systems.

  43. Re: only 59 percent of US storefronts have termina by taustin · · Score: 1

    "Mandatory" is a very flexible term. Merchants can, in theory, still imprint cards with a knuckle buster and deposit those in the bank like checks.

    The actual rule is that if you don't use a chip card reader, and there's a dispute, the merchant pretty much automatically loses. For merchants who don't have problems with fraud to begin with, it's an expense they can easily do without.

    That's why the 59% that have adopted the new technology have produced such a disproportionate reduction in fraud: They're the ones who have the most fraud to begin with.

  44. Re: only 59 percent of US storefronts have termina by taustin · · Score: 1

    I've never seen a chip reader that didn't also have a mag strip reader as well. When I was in Iceland a year and a half ago, the card I used for nearly everything didn't have a chip. The only place I had trouble with it was buying fuel, and that wasn't because it didn't have a chip, but because it didn't have a PIN (which it could have, if I'd known to set it up in advance).

  45. Re:So full of shit by taustin · · Score: 1

    An increasing number of stores are refusing to swipe when the chip isn't working. (My employer does.)

    The reason is that thieves will deliberately damage the chip and reprogram the mag strip with a different number than is on the card (if there is one, these days), which is the old fashioned form of credit card fraud all over again.

    You really need to call your bank and tell them to replace the card. Otherwise, eventually, you won't be able to use it at all.

  46. Good news! So fees will be 50% lower right? by Maxo-Texas · · Score: 1

    I mean with 70% less fraud, surely they can reduce merchant fees from 3% to 2%?

    --
    She was like chocolate when she drank... semi-sweet at first and then increasingly bitter.
  47. Re:So full of shit by tepples · · Score: 1

    For somebody who uses a non-Apple device in order to run applications that have no close substitute on iOS, is it worthwhile to buy and carry an iPad mini just for Apple Pay?

  48. Re: The USA banking is a couple of decades behind. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    What. The. Fuck.

  49. Re: only 59 percent of US storefronts have termin by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Online purchases use verified by visa or MasterCard Securecode over here in Europe. Stores that use those have vastly lower card fraud (95%) since these essentially are 2FA (in most cases; some issuers use a simple password instead of a good 2FA app or dongle). The only stores that don't use them are small outfits like PayPal and eBay who cannot afford to invest in programmers who could implement this feature while major corporations like the corner mom and pop store do support it.

  50. Pay wave in the US? by WinstonWolfIT · · Score: 1

    I returned from a 10-year stint in Australia, where I stopped carrying cash, wrote only two checks, and for purchases under an amount set by the merchant -- $30 in some cases, $100 more typical -- simply tap the card, faster than cash. I looked into it here and the friction apparently was the cost of the chip. Apparently not. Anyone know what the heck is keeping tap-pay from becoming a thing if the chips are already on the cards?

    As to card details being compromised for online purchases, hate PayPal all you want but with it (and 2fa) I finally got cancelled cards under control and some peace of mind.

    1. Re:Pay wave in the US? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      RFID is as secure as leaving your front door open and shouting 'Rob Me Now'.
      Your card details can be read while the card is in your wallet and in your pocket.
      Most banks will issue a Chip&Pin card without the RFID capability.
      I only have one card with RFID and all my cards (and passport) as kept in RFID blocking covers/wallet.
      Don't believe me? Then google for this
      "getting Credit Card details via rfid scanner"

      Payment systems such as ApplePay do get around this problem.

    2. Re:Pay wave in the US? by moronoxyd · · Score: 1

      RFID is as secure as leaving your front door open and shouting 'Rob Me Now'.
      Your card details can be read while the card is in your wallet and in your pocket.

      That's where RFID secure wallets orRFID blocking cards come in.

    3. Re:Pay wave in the US? by jrumney · · Score: 1

      Your card details can be read while the card is in your wallet and in your pocket.

      When I've used my card online, the details available via unauthenticated RFID or by taking a snapshot or imprint of the front of the card (its the same details) are only sufficient to complete a purchase when I deal with US vendors. Everywhere else, I need 2FA or at least the 3 digits from the back of the card to finish the transaction.

    4. Re:Pay wave in the US? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      RFID was on some american cards in the mid to late 2000's. It has slowly disappeared as people were concerned about the remote theft of the RFID data. It disappeared from all of the cards that I have had just before or as the chip cards started to come out.

      None of the cards that I carry have RFID capability any longer.

    5. Re:Pay wave in the US? by damnbunni · · Score: 1

      Many cards have all the details on the back now - there's nothing on the front except the bank's logo.

      So all you need is a picture of the back of the card.

    6. Re:Pay wave in the US? by WinstonWolfIT · · Score: 1

      Yes this is common knowledge. But if I don't know someone who knows someone who knows someone who got hijacked, I'm not going to lose sleep and still have the insta-pay convenience. Credit card numbers are far more troublesome than rfid, and my bank freezes my account almost instantly when the flags go up. The thing about rfid is (in this case) it only works in Australia and given you have to make a legit looking card with a chip in it, and the low transaction amounts, it's a huge amount of work for a small payoff.

    7. Re:Pay wave in the US? by thegarbz · · Score: 1

      I only have one card with RFID

      You're an idiot. If you had two cards then the read would simply fail.

      Don't believe me? Then google for this

      Oh I believe you. Know what? The best thing about card details skimmed via RFID is how in most of the world they are completely useless to fraudsters as they can't replicate cards that require chip+PIN. Now if the USA would get off their arse and mandate PIN like in other sane countries there'd be no more RFID cloning in the USA either.

    8. Re:Pay wave in the US? by viperidaenz · · Score: 1

      That's why my credit card stays in my wallet next to my wallet ninja, that effectly blocks the NFC signal.
      I use my phone for NFC payments.

      Simply reading a card with an RFID reader won't give you the expiry date or the CCV number. Reading it with a terminal will leave a trace back to the terminal owner.

    9. Re:Pay wave in the US? by viperidaenz · · Score: 1

      All cards have all the details on the back, except prepaid credit cards where the card number is printed on, not stamped.

      The stamped numbers can be read from a photo of either side.

  51. Re: So full of shit by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    In Europe, handing your card to wait staff and letting it out of sight is considered being negligent and you're liable for all charges made to the card. So you do the right thing by not accepting wait staff to take your card (or by following them to the reader).

  52. Re: only 59 percent of US storefronts have termina by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Visa has always made money on fraud.
    https://www.reuters.com/article/us-creditcards-settlement-interchange/visa-mastercard-banks-in-7-25-billion-retail-settlement-idUSBRE86C16H20120714

    International Visa, in countries with cardholder protection, have had chips for and photos decades.
    Fraud rates vary from low - a Catholic book shop, to very high - Mail order laptop with no previous history. Should fraud occur the stores commission will rise uncomfortably, so usually the store takes the hit. So is the take 1% or 3-5% by Visa.
    Given facial reconition IS for sale, any US driver photo, fraudsters do wear a greater risk of identification even 10 years later! In Australia, Bulgarian ATM skimmers are often matched with arrival photals.

    So the questionis, will merchant fees be falling anytime soon - in light of the 2012 collusion settlement.

  53. Re: only 59 percent of US storefronts have termina by Z00L00K · · Score: 5, Informative

    Same thing in Europe - chip cards rules since at least 10 years now.

    Just minor problems that are easy to resolve by cleaning the chip contacts against the shirt whenever there's a problem.

    This seems to be pretty much a symptom where the US is - way behind on a lot of things these days compared to 50 years ago when the US was the leader in technology.

    --
    If builders built buildings the way programmers wrote programs, then the first woodpecker would destroy civilization.
  54. SkimProt EMV and MagStripe cards protection by D,Petkow · · Score: 1

    There is a Bulgarian startup that offers users the ability to use only the EMV chip and bypass the magnetic strip. I have officially aksed all banks on their opinion of this product, and received emails from maybe 1 or 2 banks only, that were sketchy. My main question was if my card has both an EMV chip and a magnetic stripe - if i block the stripe with SkimProt does this invalidate my card in some way, could it cause issues with ATMs etc. Nobody bothered to answer me, so i simply went and got a card with ONLY an EMV chip and no mag stripe. But you have to ask for it. In the USA most retailers cant yet read EMVs though, kinda backwards.

    1. Re:SkimProt EMV and MagStripe cards protection by jrumney · · Score: 1

      A magnet does the job, no need to buy overpriced "nano technology" stickers to act as electromagnetic shields.

  55. and undid those gains... by BeCre8iv · · Score: 1

    with the rollout of contactless pickpocketing.

    --
    This perpetual motion machine Lisa made is a joke, it just keeps getting faster and faster. - Homer
    1. Re:and undid those gains... by AK+Marc · · Score: 1

      The rest of the world uses NFC chip + PIN, so skimming will not get you a perfect duplicate (though could allow some "card not present" charges). The US is slow to chips, so obviously slow to chip+ PIN as well.

    2. Re: and undid those gains... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      How would a would be pickpocket know your PIN?

  56. Meanwhile in Poland by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    100% stores have accepted chip cards for 10+ years. And now you can make contactless payments everywhere. Almost no one uses magnetic stripe. Americans still do. And they write cheques.

    1. Re:Meanwhile in Poland by darthsilun · · Score: 1

      You need to get out of Poland more often.

      Americans like me haven't written checks (or cheques) in years. And several of my cards have contactless, and I use it.

      I suspect that I am not alone in this respect.

    2. Re:Meanwhile in Poland by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Americans don't write checks anymore, well maybe if the american is older than 50 lol

      I myself have probably only written 3 checks in the last decade.

      The most recent a few months ago when the apartment where I live was redoing their website and their payment portal was down so everyone had to write a check or get a money order that month.

      The last time before that was when I owed taxes. Of course i wrote a check and snail mailed that fucker on the last day possible. Let it take a long as possible for uncle sam to get that money.

      I think the only time before that was when i put down the security deposit for my apartment.

    3. Re:Meanwhile in Poland by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Do you know the US has a 3% interchange fee for credit card payments? Poland, and the whole EU, has 0.3%. That 2.7% difference is added by the retailer to the cost of everything you purchase.

    4. Re:Meanwhile in Poland by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      That makes up, I suppose, for the fact that everything in western Europe, in my experience, costs on average 10-15% more than in the US.

      But you probably think you make it up on volume when you pay by credit card, eh?

      And my experience over in eastern Europe (Czechia and Poland) some things are inexpensive, e.g. beer and dining out, but everything else is pretty much the same price as in western Europe. Except for the hookers; they're cheap. So that's a bonus.

    5. Re:Meanwhile in Poland by AK+Marc · · Score: 1

      Outside the US, your bank account is effectively public. Without checks, having an account will let you deposit, but not withdrawal. In the US, if you find someone's bank account, you can presume it has checks, and you can forge a check with those numbers, and have a 90% chance of making a payment (though it could be stopped later). The rest of the world does something e-check-like at the point of sale that doesn't use account numbers. You give out your account numbers freely, and people do "wire transfers" for free. Daily.

      Even the "I don't use checks" generation uses checks. If you don't set up direct debit with your utility, you almost have to pay by check. They save money by not taking CC. I even went to a utility once with an ATM in the lobby. If you don't have cash, use the ATM, because they don't take CC. Oh, and if you don't want to wait in line for 3 hours between 10 and noon, you have to pay by check in the drop box.

      The rest of the world uses free wire transfers like Americans use(d) checks.

      The US is still 20 years behind. Deliberately, because it locks money into banks, where you can't use it.

    6. Re: Meanwhile in Poland by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yet in all those cases people would have used a bank transfer anywhere else in the world. I'm 35 and I have never seen a cheque.

  57. Re: So full of shit by Kjella · · Score: 1

    You don't sign for things up here unless there's a widespread terminal failure and the company still has an old fashioned carbon-copy style credit device available.

    You only need a carbon-copy device if the power is out or all your terminals are broken and if the power is out there's no lights so most likely the store will close. It's far more common that the Internet connection is down, then it goes into offline mode where instead of the regular receipt it spits out a bill that I sign on, at least that's the way it works here in Norway. I'm not sure if they send it electronically later when it reconnects and the signatures are just for disputes or if the store needs to deliver the paper bills to the bank, but cards eventually get charged and usually everybody is happy.

    When that happens the store is on the hook for fraud as you could potentially use a debit card with no money or a credit card in excess of the limit. I'm not sure if they have offline blacklists for blocked cards, so potentially stolen cards too. But unless you're running around with wire cutters that's not something a fraudster can plan for and it's up to the store to get it fixed in a timely manner or invest in redundant connections or simply refuse large/all transactions. Tough in practice I've never been refused in ages, except when the office cafeteria's single terminal was broken. But they took IOUs on a piece of paper...

    --
    Live today, because you never know what tomorrow brings
  58. Only 59% ? Seriously? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    That doesn't match my experience.

    Those 41% must be in the flyover states where the rubes and hicks live.

  59. I gives me pause to wonder by darthsilun · · Score: 1

    What the fraud rate would have been if we'd done what we should have done and gone to Chip&Pin?

    Even though I have PINs on all my cards, only Target uses it. Even in Europe and India my cards comes up "signature", not PIN.

    But if the fraud rate is low now, that probably only means that the crims haven't figured out how to defraud it – yet.

    P.S. I'm still waiting for restaurants to get the portable readers that the wait staff bring to my table and my card never leaves my sight.

  60. Re: only 59 percent of US storefronts have termina by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The tech giants are American because Americans are good at business - monetizing inventions and mass producing. Invention as such happens elsewhere. GSM was invented in Europe, Nokia and Ericsson are European companies who did early smartphones - Samsung is an Asian company - and so on.

    Americans are great businessmen - but innovation? Nope. Occationally, something nifty comes out of the US too. Still the best microprocessors, keeping the lead aquired in the 70's...

  61. Re: only 59 percent of US storefronts have termina by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    A fucking citation is needed. There were phone payments long before {Apple|Google} Pay. From dumbphone SMS to RFID on SIMs released a year before the iphone ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mobile_Suica ). Sure you are right if you want to narrowly define smartphones to something released since the iphone.

  62. Re: So full of shit by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Sometimes the cure is worse than the disease.

  63. Re:So full of shit by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Why do you give away the card number and all that? If you have a chip, the chip is all you need. So, cut or melt the raised numbers - you don't need them. (Well, write them down somewhere else , for your internet shopping. You don't need a number on the card you use in chip readers.) Also destroy the magnetic stripe. Sand it off, or heat it or de-magnetize.

    Now there is no way for fraudsters to get the information, short of reading the chip. Which is not trivial at all - the chip is a small computer, there is end-to-end encryption between chip and card company. The numbers are not available inside the card reader - a cleverly hacked & reprogrammed card reader can't leak the numbers because all the reader can do is pass on an encrypted data stream.

    And if you think you need the numbers or magstrip for fallback solutions - keep an extra card for that purpose. The card you use for everyday transactions in chip readers should be the one with no stripe and no raised numbers. Nothing for skimmers to see, so no mysterious items on your bill. No opportunity for a waiter to sneak off with the card number as he handles your card either - not even if they have an extra mag strip reader for their fraud racket.

  64. Re: only 59 percent of US storefronts have termina by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    No, you can't have it that way. Visa and MasterCard were the ones who created that decades-old system in the first place and they've been pushing very hard (and overall very successfully) to get it accepted throughout the world ever since. It's pretty much just the USA that has been refusing to allow the chips despite MasterCard/Visa's efforts.

  65. Re:The USA banking is a couple of decades behind.. by darthsilun · · Score: 1

    The real question is, why is the USA so backwards on these things ?

    Your life sounds a lot like mine. The real question is why are so many people outside the US so ignorant about how things work in the US? And why do so many of you keep trying to tell us how backward we are when it's clear you don't even have a clue?

    Yes, there are still plenty of dinosaurs writing checks. In a country of 340M where probably at least 80M are over 60 years old there's bound to be a few. I dare say you've got a few over there too, where ever over there is.

    Although it's true we still print these silly $1 notes, even when we've got a perfectly good $1 coin and a $2 note. It's nearly as bad as India, with their R10, R20, and R50 notes (worth about 6, 12, and 30 cents respectively. And silly /. will handle £ and € but not the cent sign. 1980 called, it wants ASCII back.)

  66. chip w/o pin is still crap by l3v1 · · Score: 1

    I can't seem to understand how the US can be so behind the curve on some really important issues. One of them regarding financial/banking issues is the matter of the freaking chip&pin cards (or more the lack of proper use of them). Never ever have I seen any US store require chip&pin authentication, they always just read the chip and make you sign, which is crazy a**stupid. I thought they saw finally the light when chip cards were getting introduced - very, very, really late vs. everyone else -, but introducing such a half a**ed solution is idiotic, and nothing seems to change.

    --
    I am putting myself to the fullest possible use, which is all I can think that any conscious entity can ever hope to do.
  67. Re: only 59 percent of US storefronts have termina by 110010001000 · · Score: 0

    It is always funny when Europeans think plastic cards are "technology".

  68. Re: only 59 percent of US storefronts have termina by LinuxIsGarbage · · Score: 1

    Plus it seems if a reader can't read the chip after 3 attempts, it will let it go through as a mag strip tranaction.

  69. Re:So full of shit by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    It is even worse than that. They don't have to deactivate the chip and fail it 3 times. In the magstrip there is a bit that tells the terminal this is a chip card. That's how it knows when you swipe it and then it prompt to insert the card.

    All the criminal has to do when they rewrite the card is flip that bit so the terminal thinks it is a prechip card and it will work on the 1st swipe every time.

  70. Re: So full of shit by Strider- · · Score: 1

    It's far more common that the Internet connection is down, then it goes into offline mode where instead of the regular receipt it spits out a bill that I sign on, at least that's the way it works here in Norway

    Here, in my part of Canada, if the retailer/restaurant’s internet connection goes down, the hand-held terminals just flip over to 3G or GPRS wireless, and conduct the transaction through the cellular network.

    --
    ...si hoc legere nimium eruditionis habes...
  71. Re: only 59 percent of US storefronts have termina by DeBaas · · Score: 1

    Meaning in Canada, we've had cards with chips in them for more than 10 years already and pretty much every single stores have a chip reader and very few actually accept magnetic cards anymore.

    I never had a problem with my magnetic US credit card in BC or Quebec.

    You wouldn't. Liability in this case is at your own bank (the issuer)
    The way I understand it, if the acquiring bank supports chip and the merchant doesn't, then the merchant is liable for fraud. If the acquirer (in this case Canadian bank) doesn't support chip, then the acquirer is liable.
    If both the acquirer and the merchant support chip, the issuer (your bank) is liable. So they have no problem with you using a magstripe. In case of fraud, your bank is liable.

    --
    ---
  72. chip or swipe by ohgary · · Score: 1

    Moving to chips had nothing to do with fraud, It had to do with liability. If a store uses chip + pin and there is fraud the bank eats the loss, If they use chip with no pin or swipe then the vendor eats the cost on fraud. Some low cost per transition sites still swipe because they are willing to eat the cost in favor of speed. Other locations where product value is high or % of fraud is high have gone chip. With checks pretty much going to way of the Dodo birds and even for the few that accept them, they technically dont accept checks but do an ACH from your account. (ever get your check back at the register, guess what ACH).

  73. Re:The USA banking is a couple of decades behind.. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Meanwhile China is getting further and further ahead.

  74. Re:The USA banking is a couple of decades behind.. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Meanwhile China is getting further and further ahead of you.

  75. Re: So full of shit by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    In Sweden you can get a wireless Chip terminal for as low as 45$ but more common is to pay a monthly fee for a payment solution which would include a wireless terminal. The exact cost would depened what service you need but a basic one would cost around 40-50$ pretty month.

    Heck a very small boardgaming meetup (30 people maybe) I went to this weekend had a wireless chip terminal in it's temporary cafeteria that only served drinks, candy and toast.

  76. Re: only 59 percent of US storefronts have termina by bobmajdakjr · · Score: 1

    i still don't get the point of the chip when half the websites don't even need the ccv number from the back. and once i paid my time warner bill using the wrong expire date.

  77. Re: only 59 percent of US storefronts have termina by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Nope. European dumbfucks decided it was a good idea to put electrical contacts on a plastic carded stored in a wallet. A stupid idea plainly obvious to anyone who even understands the most rudimentary fundamentals of electronics, or ever used a game console with rom cartridges, but you fools adopted it anyways. American banks, also not being very smart, copied a bad idea.

  78. Re: only 59 percent of US storefronts have termina by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Good news then, most cards have been replaced with NFC capable chips and most terminals support contact less payments (gas stations being the only exception I've seen so far). So put some insulation tape over the chip if you wish (or use your NFC capable phone instead). Bad news is that most banks over here had the terrible idea to not require PIN for payments 50 EUR of payments ago.

  79. Re: only 59 percent of US storefronts have termina by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Anything made by a human industrial process is technology. Plastic is technology, as is recording binary data on magnetic film or within microchips.

    Misguided national pride made you post a comment that makes no sense.

  80. Re: only 59 percent of US storefronts have termina by thegarbz · · Score: 1

    We don't. But out standard cards have been just fine accepting mobile phone NFC payments long before Apple claimed to invent the idea. Hell I rarely use my card.

    As for plastic technology ... who developed NFC? The Japanese working with the Dutch. You're welcome.

  81. Re: only 59 percent of US storefronts have termina by viperidaenz · · Score: 1

    If you ave a decent card issuer, using your card without the ccv should raise a fraud alert

  82. Re: only 59 percent of US storefronts have termina by viperidaenz · · Score: 2

    My first smartphone was an i-mate SP2 in 2004.
    i-mate is an Irish company. It was built by HTC, a Taiwanese company.

    Nokia, Philips and Sony invented NFC, none of which are American companies. One Finnish, one Dutch and one Japanese.

    ARM is a UK company, which powers pretty much every smartphone ever.

    Where is 'Murica in all this innovation?

  83. Re: only 59 percent of US storefronts have termina by AK+Marc · · Score: 5, Informative

    Funny when Americans think that wirelessly powered computers used for strong crypto embedded in plastic cards are "just plastic cards".

    It's not the ancient plastic cards that are technology, it's the computer embedded into them, and the crypto, NFC, wireless power and other things used around them that make them technology. Is it just because the US is the last in the world to start supporting this that it's "backwards"?

  84. Re: only 59 percent of US storefronts have termina by viperidaenz · · Score: 1

    oh.. and first smartphone NFC trial was by Innovision (at the time, a UK company), using a Nokia 6131 in the UK in 2007

    Apple's first NFC equipt product, the iPhone 6 came out in 2014
    First Android phone with NFC was the Nexus S in 2010

  85. Re:So full of shit by AK+Marc · · Score: 1

    In Europe, where the chip cards have been around for a while, you don't give away your card. You keep it in your hand to pay. You handed your card to a stranger who went into the back room with it. And you don't see any problem with that?

  86. Re: only 59 percent of US storefronts have termina by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Not as funny as when Americans think a taxi service offered through a website is technology, though.

  87. Re: only 59 percent of US storefronts have termina by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    What's so stupid about it? It has been working flawlessly for a long time...

  88. Re:So full of shit by viperidaenz · · Score: 1

    You don't need to clone the chip, all you need to do is damage it.
    If a terminal fails to read the chip, it will accept a mag strip.

    You'll probably have to swipe it - and be prompted to insert it, insert it - and be prompted to swipe due to read failure, then swipe it again

    It may ask you to insert it multiple times before allowing a swipe.

  89. Re: only 59 percent of US storefronts have termina by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Who invented smartphones

    Nokia.

    and smartphone payments

    Merita Bank, Ericsson and Nokia. The technology currently used for contactless phone payments was invented by Philips, Nokia and Sony.

    The tech giants are all AMERICAN, skippy. Europe is NOT where innovations originate.

    'Tech' giants are not where innovations originate. Innovations usually come from Europe or Asia and occasionally from America, but rarely from 'tech' giants. Those are simply companies offering online services for a fee or in exchange for access to your private data.

  90. Re:So full of shit by shilly · · Score: 1

    Or maybe a refurbished iphone SE? I think that would be cheaper, and a smaller form factor

  91. Re: So full of shit by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    And in England we have a homeless man who sell magazines instead of begging, who accept cards...

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/uk-england-bristol-43131050/bristol-big-issue-seller-goes-contactless

  92. Re: only 59 percent of US storefronts have termina by scottrocket · · Score: 1

    Yeah I wanna tap muh card - but all of my local retailers have the slide-type only. Half of them are bolted in a fixed position that you can't rotate, and they usually have a riser shelf, or some display mounted right next to the slide! Someone here earlier referred to these as "knucklebusters" - sounds like an apt name.

  93. Re: only 59 percent of US storefronts have termina by jeremyp · · Score: 1

    All I can say is that this "stupid idea" has been working for years over here in Europe.

    --
    All I want is a secure system where it's easy to do anything I want. Is that too much to ask ~~ Randall Munroe
  94. Re: So full of shit by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    How did that happen?

  95. Re: The USA banking is a couple of decades behind. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Good luck finding a shop outside the US that will accept a cheque. Since cashiers tend to be young, odds are it will be the first cheque they see in their life if you try it.

  96. Chip and pin was broken in 2007 by davecb · · Score: 1

    See Ross Anderson's "Light Blue Touchpaper" for a timeline, https://www.lightbluetouchpape...

    As other writers noted, Visa has 70% less fraud because they can now disclaim responsibility for all the fraudulent charges on the older, more popular equipment. There might be a small decrease in fraud overall, but the "70% less" is really "70% the merchant has to eat, as we're not accepting fraud reports from their equipment".

    --
    davecb@spamcop.net
    1. Re:Chip and pin was broken in 2007 by DarenN · · Score: 1

      The entire point of the liability shift was to try and reduce the card present fraud in the system. The level of skimming and cloning in the US is outrageous when fixes for the very issue were in use worldwide for decades. Even chip and signature puts a dent in it because the chip effectively cannot be cloned. The acquiring banks that lease the equipment to the merchants and process their transactions had - literally - no incentive to update. They were rolling out updated equipment that still did not support chip until a couple of years ago, which was criminal.
      Now the merchants are getting a taste of how widespread the problem is, they are pressuring the acquirers into upgrading. The really big merchants have already converted but they manage their own systems in house (like Walmart) so now the mid-level retailers are starting to push. It'll get there. In much of Europe magstripe fallback is not allowed if your card is chip enabled and we manage, but it took time and it will probably be a decade or so before magstripe is phased out.

      --
      Rational thought is the only true freedom
  97. Re: The USA banking is a couple of decades behind. by jedZ · · Score: 1

    You should try visiting France sometime!

  98. Re: only 59 percent of US storefronts have termin by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    A "Knuckleduster" is the old school device that would imprint the card on a carbon paper reciept. This was how we did it before the magnetic stripe.

  99. EMV just increases eFraud by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I used to work for a software company that desgined POS systems for the entertainment industry. It's a well known fact that EMV in america does reduce actual physical card fraud, but actually drove eFraud way up. When we're trying to sell a customer on implementing chip & pin we tell them that it reduces fraud (but we're talking about people who physically possess the card, and neglect to mention that overall it doesn't reduce it at all.) There are other horrible things that come along with EMV implementation too. For starters, almost all EMV terminals (card readers by Ingenico, FirstData, etc.) send their traffic over ethernet. For most companies, this means they now have credit card data going over their network instead of over a phone line like the past. This means THEIR WHOLE NETWORK now has to be PCI-DSS compliant (or sectioned off very carefully), which is a fucking nightmare. I'm too lazy to look up the studies about how it increases eFraud but the marketing team has shown it to me before.

  100. Re: only 59 percent of US storefronts have termina by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Can I please have it this way instead? "Visa caused 70% of fraud by not implementing decades old system earlier than they did."

    The glass can be half empty.

    No kidding, the chip and pin technology has been around since the mid 90's, and all of my cards have had it for at least a decade if not more.

    It's surprising to go to the US and see the backwards ass retail payment system.

    Bragging how decades old technology designed to reduce fraud actually works to reduce fraud has to be looked at in the context of the fact that it's taken this long to deploy it.

    If Visa gave a damn about preventing fraud, they should have rolled this out years ago. This is hardly new technology, and it could have been preventing more fraud for a very long time.

  101. Re: only 59 percent of US storefronts have termina by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    European dumbfucks decided it was a good idea to put electrical contacts on a plastic carded stored in a wallet.

    Yeah, really dumb to have something that actually works reliably for at least the three year card life.
    I've never had a card misread, and never had to clean the contacts.

  102. Re: only 59 percent of US storefronts have termina by Shirley+Marquez · · Score: 1

    The degree of caution that card issuers call for depends on the site. Online bill payment is a low fraud situation. People just don't seem to use stolen credit cards to pay their electric and cable bills, perhaps because the ongoing relationship with the provider would make it too easy for them to punish you later for fraud.

  103. Re: The USA banking is a couple of decades behind. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I've been to France countless times. Never seen a cheque. They do like credit cards, though. Even supermarkets accept them.

  104. Re: only 59 percent of US storefronts have termina by LinuxIsGarbage · · Score: 1

    once i paid my time warner bill using the wrong expire date.

    My bank issued me a new credit card number as a "security precaution".

    I logged into Paypal to update my number and it already had the new number. . .

  105. How many TRANSACTIONS are using chips? by Shirley+Marquez · · Score: 1

    "...although only 59 percent of US storefronts have terminals that accept chip cards, fraud has dropped 70 percent from September 2015 to December 2017 for those retailers that have completed the chip upgrade... it seems like two years has resulted in staggeringly little progress in encouraging storefronts to shift from magnetic stripe to chip-embedded cards, given that in early 2016, 37 percent of US storefronts were able to process chip cards."

    There are still many storefronts that cannot process chip cards, but this statistic ignores the matter of the size and volume of the stores. In general, the big stores that do the most transactions have converted; smaller stores lag behind, as do gas stations. (I have not yet encountered a chip reader at a gas pump.) So the percentage of transactions that are chip-enabled is likely higher.

    Another variable: the number of customers who are actually using the chip readers. In early 2016, some stores had the readers but they didn't work yet, or if they did the customers were not yet being encouraged to use them. Many stores now have their readers programmed to refuse swipe transactions if your card has a chip.

  106. Re:So full of shit by h4ck7h3p14n37 · · Score: 1

    I'm amazed that so few storefronts are actually using the chip readers. Most large retailers have had them since the Target hack, but then there are some places like Mariano's who still don't have them. I'm kind of surprised they're willing to eat the losses from fraud.

  107. Re: only 59 percent of US storefronts have termina by lsatenstein · · Score: 1

    Can I please have it this way instead? "Visa caused 70% of fraud by not implementing decades old system earlier than they did."

    The glass can be half empty.

    Presumeably, with less fraud, the fees paid by merchant and by consumer should drop, or am I joking?

    --
    Leslie Satenstein Montreal Quebec Canada
  108. Re: The USA banking is a couple of decades behind. by jedZ · · Score: 1

    Maybe it's a north/south thing but I can't count the number of times I've stood in a supermarket checkout line at Leclerc or Carrefour while someone pulls out a chequebook. The checkout clerk sometimes even has a printer which fills in the amount automatically. There are cheques for everything here - restaurants, vacations, school, you name it. Sure, they like cards as well (though to be fair these are more like charge cards than US credit cards) and they are chip/PIN or contactless.