Fraudsters will find a way to stay in business

by. Nicole Reyes

On the heels of one of the largest merchant breaches in history, many have posed the question: Would EMV have lessened our impact from this breach?

Although it’s a loaded question, it’s a pretty common one, so I wanted to take some time to walk through the complicated answer.

It’s true EMV migration is the next step toward fraud prevention in the U.S. payments industry and will reduce criminals’ ability to produce counterfeit cards with data obtained through breaches. However, EMV will not eliminate counterfeit fraud entirely. Fraud will still happen.

The move to EMV technology can be costly, which leads us to believe many merchants (mainly smaller merchants) won’t be converted to EMV terminals for a long while. Even if an issuer has provided its cardholder base with an EMV card, transactions at these ill-equipped merchants will still be vulnerable. Inside these mom-and-pop shops, cardholders will be required to swipe their cards the old-fashioned way, leaving open the door to the possibility of stolen mag-stripe data.

Secondly, fraudsters are nothing if not adaptable. There is little doubt these criminals will find different avenues to commit fraud (think phishing, cyber-attacks or even good ol’ traditional stealing of mail and wallets). They will find a way to stay in business.

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