Criminals steal €1.5 billion from EU credit cards
Nikolaj Nielsen reports:
EU citizens are losing some €1.5 billion every year as criminals siphon off their money through the fraudulent use of debit and credit cards.
A new report released on Monday (7 December) by the EU police agency Europol found that the thefts most often occur in the United States.
“The majority of illegal face-to-face card transactions affecting the European Union take place overseas, mainly in the United States,” noted the Hague-based agency.
Embedded security features on EU cards such as chips and pin technology are easily bypassed in the United States.
Criminals exploit the weaknesses in America because some US-based cash machines are not fully compliant to a global security standard based on chip technology, known as EMV.
Read more on EUObserver.
Related:
Europol: Payment Card Fraud in the European Union (pdf)