October 1st was the deadline for retailers and credit card issuing companies to switch over to using the new EMV credit cards which contain a computer chip that creates and encrypts a new number every time the card is used, which will dramatically reduce the amount of credit card fraud.
Under the newly implemented regulations, if a business does not switch its credit card processing machines over to the new EMV cards or if a credit card issuer does not provide new EMV chip cards to its customers, in the event of credit card fraud, the responsibility for loss will be on either the credit card issuer or the retailer, whichever has not complied with the new law.
For us, the customers, our liability does not change from the legally mandated limit of $50, which is generally not even assessed against consumer victims of credit card fraud.
Changing over to the new EMV credit cards by credit card issuers as well as installing and activating the new credit card processing equipment at stores is a daunting task. More than a billion credit cards will have to be reissued. Some stores have been more proactive and responsible than others. Target, WalMart, Walgreens and Costco have changed to the new card processing equipment, but many companies are lagging behind in updating their card processing equipment.
Meanwhile, according to a survey of CreditCard.com only about 40 percent of Americans have received new EMV chip cards from their credit card companies. According to Stephanie Ericksen of Visa, by mid September, Visa had reissued 151.8 million EMV chip cards and while that may seem like a huge amount, that number only represents 20 percent of the total credit cards that need to be reissued.
And there is found the opportunity for scammers.
Ingenious scam artists, the only criminals we refer to as artists, are taking advantage of the situation by contacting people by email posing as their credit card company informing them that in order to issue a new EMV chip card, they need them to either update their account by confirming some personal information or click on a link to continue the process. This is a case of you are in trouble with either option.
If you provide personal information in response to the email, you have just turned over this information to a scammer who will use it to make you a victim of identity theft. Alternatively, if you click on the link, you may end up downloading keystroke logging malware that will steal the personal information from your computer including your Social Security number, passwords and sensitive financial information that will be used to make you a victim of identity theft.
So how can you tell if the email purporting to be from your credit card company is legitimate?
For starters, the fact that the email may carry the logo of your credit card company is absolutely no indication of legitimacy. It is a simple matter to make a counterfeit logo. The first thing you should do is check the…
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