Why do thieves target the United States?
Why do thieves target the United States?
Unfortunately, the United States accounts for nearly half of all fraudulent credit card transaction across the entire world. Why would thieves target a country with advanced fraud detection networks in place?
Because we have credit cards, and lots of them.
In fact, more than 70% of Americans have at least one credit card in their possession. In terms of pure numbers, the U.S. Census Bureau reports that in 2008, 1.49 billion cards were in circulation – including both debit and credit. That’s a ton of cards. Americans are ripe for thieves to target as possible victims, assuming that if they’re able to get passed automated credit card fraud detection services, many people simply won’t notice the charges, or even if they do, it will be too late to prevent.
Additionally, despite our fairly sophisticated fraud detection services, our nation still makes it fairly easy to obtain credit card numbers.
From an Economist.com report:
But America also makes things easy for fraudsters: alone among developed countries, it still relies exclusively on cards with magnetic strips, which are far less secure than the chip-and-PIN technology used elsewhere. This combines a personal code with a microchip from which it is harder to extract data than a magnetic strip.
In the end, fraud detection is big business and, at least in my experience, has worked fairly well. It has tagged a few of my own purchases as fraud in the past, but the inconvenience that I experience is worth the added protection I get from real fraud, like what happened to me.
Have you experienced fraud on one of your credit cards? Did your bank or credit card company catch it before you did?
