Experts produce “virtually foolproof way of stealing a consumer's details.”
After recent reports of chip and pin fraud occurring in Chiswick, Cambridge University experts claim to have devised a “virtually foolproof way of stealing a consumer's details.”
According to reports, the experts believe that their method could easily be replicated by and have produced a video which is available online as a warning. The team reprogrammed a hand-held chip and pin machine to allow them access to card details and pins and believe that it would be simple to swap their rigged machine for one in a store.
The development has shaken the banking industry who have admitted to being concerned and state that ways of foiling this new threat are already in development. A spokesperson for APACS, the payments organization representing high street banks, stated “People could, in theory, use this to steal account details from cards. Our experts are in discussion with the manufacturers of terminals to see what can be done. Essentially what these people have done is replace the innards of a chip and Pin machine.
“However, we would say that this has only been seen in a laboratory so far. People would not be able to create counterfeit chip and Pin cards, but they could use this information abroad to make purchases.”
Recent research by credit company Experian identified Chiswick and Ealing as areas of the UK most likely to be hit by identity fraud. Using data gathered from the people who had contacted their Victims of Fraud service, Experian have published a report for the whole of the UK which shows where this crime is most prevalent. The analysis indicates that residents of London have a combined average risk score of 449. With a score of 471 the risk in Chiswick is nearly 5 times the national average.
January 9, 2007
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