The Anonymous Widower

Credit Card Security – A Picture?

On Tuesday, I wrote about another credit card scam.

It strikes me that the Internet has moved on with things like Twitter, Facebook and all of the other social media. But institutions like banks seem to be very much stuck in the last century when it comes to embracing, not the social media, but the technology that drives it.

For instance, go into your average shop, supermarket or garage, the till is unlikely to be something archaic, but a computer with a screen, masquerading as a sophisticated money-taking terminal.  So when I put my credit card in the card reader, this computer can do, and I hope it does, a lot more than just check the pin code.

As an example, we should be able to upload other data to our card account.  For instance, suppose I uploaded the registration of my vehicles to the bank.  Then in a garage, I could choose that these were displayed to the operator, so that if I was not in a named vehicle, he could check the card further.  I think that only once in the last five years, have I filled up with fuel, without knowing the vehicle number.  And that was when I collected a new horse box from Newbury.

But other things could be done.  Why can’t I upload a picture to my credit card company, that is then used on my card?  I’d probably put one of the Lotus.  So if my card was cloned and suspicions raised, then it would be easy to check that it wasn’t the correct card.  Perhaps, a description but not the picture could be downloaded to the terminal.  After all if this said “yellow Lotus Elan” and it was a plain red card, this should ring a few bells.

But we could also upload a personal photo, that we gave permission to be downloaded when we used our card.  It would probably only mean that if a few percent of cards had a picture on them, then criminals would be wary of using all cards in shops and garages.  I suppose they could check that a card was picture enabled, but that would mean that they would have to do a purchase in a dodgy retailer, thus leaving a trail.

I also wonder too, why you can’t have SMS messages enabled on your card or bank balance.  Say once a day, you get a balance and you are informed of every transaction over a preset limit.  I can look all this up on the Internet, but it would not be difficult terchnology to impliment and I’d pay a few pence for the messages.

This are only a few of my thoughts.

But we have to ask, why banks and credit card companies are not thinking much more like the general population.

After all, according to many sources, bank and credit card fraud is going to get much worse.  I also don’t believe that they can beat it on their own and they need all the help they can get.  And especially from those with most to lose; their customers.

August 7, 2009 - Posted by AnonW | Finance | Banks, Credit Cards, Fraud