CREDIT card fraud is one of the key drawbacks to accessing your money quickly and efficiently on the Web, as it has claimed millions of pounds from hundreds of thousands of people in recent years.
Fortunately then, Visa has introduced extra protection in recent months to fight against credit card fraud.
The global payment technology firm Visa has recently introduced new methods of protection to help combat the growing international credit card fraud problem. One of these is a new system called VisaNet. The company has stated that it is in a better position to identify credit card fraud as it has overhauled its entire detection system, and added new elements which has included an increased number of factors used to consider whether there has been an account breach.
Visa has revealed that the new technology is set to improve the fraud detection by 29% and improve detection of certain types of sophisticated credit card fraud by approximately 122%, which enables the company to identify an additional $150 billion in fraudulent transactions within the next year.
Despite being announced this month, Visa confirmed that the security improvements had been implemented in September to provide that extra safety net for credit card holders during the busy seasonal period.
Visa claims to now be able to able to spot far more fraudulent transactions than ever before, especially those stemming from foreign countries and diverse offshore bank accounts, as its newly introduced methods calculate the distance between operations, the length of the transaction and the type of stores that processed them.
Before the improvements were instigated, however, Visa only took into consideration two of these factors at a time, but have updated the system so it can it handle up to 20,000 transactions per second; identifying three times more cross-border fraudulent activity than before.
The world-leading company has quickened the system by introducing a faster and more precise set of algorithms which aim to detect false operations, which is crucial to its security as Visa processed over 45 million transactions between September 2009 and the same month last year.
Furthermore, Visa has declared that the system has been developed to handle operations closer to real-time values, rather than having to wait for the system to clear previous transactions to be able to process the next load. It also stated that it provided a "comprehensive view" in regards to global payments, which generally betters its position among consumers as fraud criminals are constantly seeking new methods in which to cheat the system.
Kevin Siegel, Visa's senior business lead for decision sciences, stated that a key part in upgrading the system was to analyse the data already at its disposition, and hopes that the new introductions push Visa to developing even more sophisticated technology that effectively deals with credit card fraud.
"There's a huge amount of data that we mine and build our analytics on," Mr Siegel commented.
"This (upgrade) opens the door and allows us to implement a wide plethora of methodologies that we couldn't use before."
Virgin Money and Visa suggest that it is essential for one to be aware their surroundings when holding a credit hard in hand, because pickpockets pray on those who fling their cards and wallets around without consideration. Thousands of previous cases have shown that some swindlers have taken a wallet from someone's pocket, removed the credit cards, then replace the wallet back where it originally was, which would leaving the target in disarray, who could go hours if not days before realising that the card has vanished – a period of time that could see his account used to fund a Mediterranean holiday.
Another common fraud method known as 'skimming' has emerged in recent years, which consists of electronically copying the data from the magnetic strip onto another card. This common technique has been used on thousands of occasions, especially in restaurants and gas stations, so it is essential to check that you are familiar with the device before inserting your card.
Also, fraudsters have been known to stick on a self-made piece of equipment (which can 'skim' your card) onto ATM machines, so it is vital to check the machine is non-detachable before trusting it with your details.
In the UK alone, skimming has turned over £100 million to fraudsters, so thinking that it just happens to the unfortunate is a foolish attitude. With more people owning credit cards thanks to the number of deals available, such as credit cards with 0% interest, consumers are advised to be more vigilant than ever.
If one has been affected by fraudulent activity it is strongly advised to contact your bank as soon as possible, because if you are still in possession of the original card, the bank is legally obliged to return the money.
