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Chip Cards Likely Chipping Away at Fraud in Europe, America is Next

emv security
20 Apr

Chip Cards Likely Chipping Away at Fraud in Europe, America is Next

By Gilbarco Veeder-Root

The world’s EMV guinea pig is performing well. According to Oil Express News, overall payment terminal fraud attacks dropped 11% in Europe last year compared to the year before. The numbers come from the 2017 European Payment Terminal Crime Report.

“EAST [European Association for Secure Transactions] said the fall was mainly driven by a 23% decrease in card skimming incidents. This is the seventh straight year the number of skimming incidents dropped and represents the lowest number of incidents reported since EAST first began gathering data in 2004,” according to the report from the Oil Express News.

Europe adopted EMV over a decade ago so the news isn’t a surprise to the experts. They say declines in skimming attacks are linked to the widespread use of chip card payment technology. But the fight to stop scammers is never-ending and the fraud battle is moving to the internet.

(Source) - The bad news from EAST, however, is that malware attacks on European ATMs more than doubled in 2017. ATM-related physical attacks also rose 21% year over year, and within that total ATM explosive attacks were up 9% from 2016.

Here in the United States, we’re just getting started with EMV but businesses are seeing the initial payoff. Criminals who see EMV upgraded pumps are now moving on, searching for unprotected sites. It’s like putting a security system sticker on the front window of your home.

Besides that, customers are eventually going to raise their expectations.

“(Source) - Where once the thought of a touch-screen mobile phone was absurd, now having a touch screen is an expectation. As EMV becomes part of a consumer’s everyday routine, Gunderson states that lacking this type of security will impact profits and customer relationships. Therefore, it is important to see the EMV implementation extension as another chance to protect your business and your customers.”

Read more here about EMV and why upgrading now is the smartest strategy to keep up with evolving payment security requirements.