Microchip-Enabled Credit Cards Still Susceptible to Fraud, FBI Warns
The FBI issued an alert Thursday warning consumers and merchants that the new microchip-enabled credit cards are still susceptible to fraud. Instead of relying on a magnetic strip to store data, the new EMV (EuroPay, MasterCard, Visa) chip cards “verify…
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the card’s authenticity by the cardholder’s personal identification number (PIN)” and “transmit transaction data between the merchant and the issuing bank with a special code that is unique to each individual transaction,” the alert said. EMV cards provide more security than traditional magnetic strip cards, but are still vulnerable to fraud, the alert said. “EMV cards can be counterfeited using stolen card data obtained from the black market,” it said. The data on the magnetic strip of an EMV card can be stolen if the point-of-service terminal is infected with data-capturing malware, and the chip won’t stop stolen or counterfeit credit cards from being used for online or telephone purchases, it said.