Credit card fraud is one of the fastest growing crimes throughout the world. International Credit Card holders are usually affected the most, due to the unauthorized access to their accounts. Here we take a quick look at the problems involved in the international credit cards.
1. Recurring use of credit card numbers. Once a credit card number has been issued and cancelled, credit card companies would issue the same credit card number to other cardholders. The personal identification numbers (PIN) and the credit cardholder’s personal information differs. But the number still remains the same.
2. Low standards regarding the usage of the cards adopted by the participating merchants. This is a frequent problem experienced by international credit cardholders. Employees of the participating merchants get complete access to the account number along with the security number of the card.
3. Account Statements issued by credit card companies do not contain sufficient information regarding the participating merchant. It does not provide pertinent information about the vendor who has charged the transaction to the credit card.
4. Untrustworthy blocking mechanism. After a card is reported as lost, it takes few months for the credit card companies to block the transactions performed via stolen or lost credit card.
5. Absence of validation software. Participating vendors do not have advanced validation software installed on their computers.
6. Lack of consumer friendly policies on fraud management. Current policies on the fraud management put the blame on the cardholders though it is not stated directly. The policies on the fraud management of international credit card companies shield the company and not the consumers.
7. Sloppy standards about investigation regarding fraudulent transactions. The worst part of being a victim of credit card fraud is that charging the suspects though guilty of fraud is a slow process.
8. Credit card fraud generally happens in online transactions. This means the credit cardholders are not protected against the online use of cards, whether authorized or unauthorized.
9. Most of the banks’ systems are incompatible with those of the international credit card companies when it comes to e-commerce. This significant weakness can result in loss of clients, so they hide the fact.