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Though chip-and-PIN has been "very successful in driving down" fraud losses in the United Kingdom, fraudsters have become more sophisticated in the technology they use to steal card details, John Folan, the detective chief inspector who leads the country's Dedicated Cheque and Plastic Crime Unit, tells CardLine Global. The unit, backed by 29 financial institutions that provide 5 million UK pounds (US$7.4 million or 5.6 million euros) in annual sponsorship, marks its seventh anniversary this month (CardLine Global, 30 April). In one sense, little has changed in those seven years, Folan says. Criminal gangs, typically made up of Eastern Europeans, continue to steal payment card details from consumers using ATMs. But the technology has become more sophisticated, with fraudsters often using cameras to capture PINs. Fraud also has moved from employees stealing card details to "wholesale card harvesting," he says. Meanwhile, gangs made up of fraudsters from South Asia also are stealing card details from UK consumers. An old form of fraud is seeing at least a modest comeback, Folan adds. Counterfeit checks, which decreased as more criminals targeted magnetic stripe cards, is increasing as chip-and-PIN makes card fraud more difficult. The unit has 42 members, one-third of which come from the banking industry. The rest are from police units, Folan says.
