Card Theft and Fraud

I January 2001 I was at a training of my employer in Munich, Nymphenburg. At the end of the training at 5.30pm, I realised, that my wallet, including two VISA credit cards, had been stolen. I know, that I still had it right after lunch at 1pm, when I payed the bill. First I asked in the restaurant, whether I left the wallet there and then I looked along the way from the restaurant, without result. At 6.17pm, when I called the card hotline to freeze the card, I got the information, 
that there had been two withdrawals,

• one at 4.49pm, amount 2000,-- DM with PIN
• the other at 5.10pm, amounting to 100,-- DM.

The theft must have happened in between lunch (1.00pm) and the end of the training (5.30pm)

• and the PIN must have been cracked during that time span,

as I hadn´t noted the PIN anywhere neither uncoded nor coded.

Here you get more details:

Card Theft and Fraud

No refund !

Litigation

Appeal

Recommendations

 

 

 

 

 

 

June 20, 2005
Credit card data are being stolen from a card service provider in the US. Reportedly this included 200.000 unencrypted records, including PINs.

More Information

 

 

The PIN is meant to identify a card holder. Now, it´s only a 4-digit number and you certainly cannot really identify a person by a number. No state would allow somebody to enter, if he wanted to identify with a number. You need an ID with a picture, so the immigration officer can do a "biometrical comparison".

Today biometrics are used for example at US immigration (fingerprint and iris scan), for login at computers (fingerprint) or for payment in shops (fingerprint).

Even though biometrics are so advanced, the unsave "Chip & PIN" system is promoted as save. The risk is being transferred to the customers !

More Information