Write a 16 page essay on Credit Card Frauds: Shell Chip and Pin.Download file to see previous pages... In February 2006, the United Kingdom made it a requirement for all Point of Sale card payments to

Write a 16 page essay on Credit Card Frauds: Shell Chip and Pin.

In February 2006, the United Kingdom made it a requirement for all Point of Sale card payments to utilize Chip and Pin payments. This step was taken as a countermeasure to reduce the credit card frauds which accounted for almost ' 439.4 million in 2003, which is a steep increase of 30% when compared to the figures of 2000. The card market of the UK is relatively the largest in all of Europe, accounting for at least ' 408 billion in transaction value per year (DataMonitor, 2006). Hence, the accounted fraud levels are high and create issues for the retail merchants who rely on Point of Sale card payments for more than 60% of their transactions. This led to the introduction of Chip and Pin payments. However, in June 2006, Shell reported a credit card fraud of ' 1 million due to the use of Chip and Pin payments.

The UK trade payment association APACS (Association of Payment Clearing Services) took steps to reduce the rising credit card fraud and introduced the Chip and Pin system to safeguard the merchants against fraudulent payments. The APACS emphasized on upgrading and adhering to the EMV technology (Euro Pay, Mastercard, and Visa) as the UK had the oldest and least sophisticated payment systems at the time.

Within months after the introduction of the Chip and Pin payments in the UK, the Shell Corporation, one of UK's largest petrol station chains, reported fraudulent activities arising from the use of Chip and Pin payments in some of its outlets. Shell Corporation has about 1,000 outlets in the UK and about 400 of them are held and operated by franchisees. The customers of Shell reported rapid unauthorized withdrawals from their accounts. The investigation carried out pointed at the Shell outlets, the customers used. It was found that the card information of the customers, along with the four-digit PIN (Personal Identification Number) was copied in the reader and this was used to make withdrawals from their accounts. Shell reported that a total of ' 1 million has been missing from its customers' accounts and the investigation on the system was conducted immediately to identify the vulnerabilities. Meanwhile, Shell suspended the use of Chip and Pin payments in its 600 outlets and reverted back to taking authorizations for payments using customer signatures. However, the 400 franchise outlets continued to use Chip and Pin payments (Sturgeon, 2006). The vulnerabilities of the system identified are discussed in the sections below.