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Card fraud is growing at a rapid rate in the UK and in many countries around the world. For comprehensive information on fraud - including the types, levels and what is being done to combat it - visit Card Watch's fraud overview page.
Card Watch is the banking industry's public fraud prevention programme that works with police, retailers and organisations including Crimestoppers to fight plastic card crime. Card Watch is run under APACS' Plastic Fraud Prevention Forum (PFPF).
PFPF, which sits under Card Payments Group, comprises representatives of all the major card issuers in the UK plus the card schemes. Its role is to develop and implement cost-effective strategies to prevent card fraud in the UK.
In February 2002, APACS announced that the UK banking industry is pressing ahead with its fraud-fighting programme to ensure that by 2005 the vast majority of UK face-to-face credit and debit card transactions will be authorised by the customer keying in their personal identification number (PIN) rather than by signing a receipt. The introduction of the PIN system, to be used with secure chip cards, is the most revolutionary change ever for the card payment system.
Using a better method to identify the cardholder combined with the chip's ability to verify that a card is authentic will drastically improve security and significantly reduce most types of fraud.
PFPF continues its investment into a range of initiatives to combat fraud in the medium-term. These include using intelligent computer systems to detect fraud at an early stage; a cardholder address checking system for card-not-present retailers; retailer education; hot card files carrying details of lost and stolen cards; and maintaining a close partnership between banks, retailers and police.
Fraud on plastic cards is an unwanted by-product of their popularity. Although absolute crime prevention is inconceivable, close liaison and sharing of information between the banks, police and retailers, along with a common commitment to fraud prevention, are key to successfully fighting plastic card crime.
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