MONEY MATTERS

Credit card fraud is growing rapidly, which if unchecked, will keep growing and prove very costly for the financial system. It is a crime that is easy to commit and at the receiving end is the poor card holder. Individual card holders bear the trouble of all this fraud, as they are required to sign an agreement that they will be responsible for all transactions made with their cards, usually until the banks are informed about the card being stolen or lost.

The banks also require merchants to verify credit card signatures. Yet, almost invariably, it is the card holder who is asked to pay for a merchant’s failure to check. This is because a significant part of the credit card industry’s income is commissions from merchants and banks don’t want to upset their fast- growing golden goose. So they go after the card holders. It is a matter of prudence and power. Banks are trying to avoid liability for the loss by making the cardholder responsible for his carelessness. It is relatively easy to recover money from an individual consumer.

Even when banks are certain a fraud has been committed, they often train their sights on the hapless cardholder.

Filed under: Uncategorized by SAJ