Debit Card Fraud Hurts Businesses AND Individuals
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| Tina Crouse, Strategist |
Having been victimized, yet again, by debit card fraud, I took it upon myself to find out if anyone else in my neighbourhood had as well. Sure enough, within 24 hours of a listserv query, 26 people responded and we all live and shop in the same places. Attempts to get the banks and the police to coordinate and stop the theft proved futile. You can read the newspaper article here.
My research indicated that many businesses are also victimized because it isn't them who are doing the scamming; it's their debit machine supplier (or their dishonest staff) using skimmers. Discussions online and at the bank told me that although the business may not know of the criminal activity, once it is established that it occurred at their site, the business is severely impacted, many perish. All for criminals using technology to steal. No protection for the business; No protection for the individual.
Although there are no failsafe methods to deal with debit card fraud, many people are trying various things to limit their exposure. I'd like to hear of them. There are several hundred people in my community who have been following this and now, several thousand who have read about it.
