Canada's banks are moving towards implementing smart cards instead of magnetic stripe-based cards (magstripe cards), with the first transaction planned for early in 2007. They're making this move in an effort to reduce the amount of fraud associated with skimming (double-swiping a magstripe card to copy the stripe contents) and PIN-theft (we are all now familiar with the litde picture urging us to shield the POS or ATM keypad when punching in our PINs). Meanwhile, in the UK, where they are already moving toward chip-and-PIN cards, fraud is on the rise. The March 8 issue of The Guardian newspaper reported "Bank and credit card fraud rose 20 per cent last year, costing British banks £505m, with part of the increase due to the introduction of new chip and pin cards."
展开▼
