Most of us have a plastic “chip and pin” card from a traditional credit card company we use to complete transactions. Is this method of payment still going to be the most popular form? I wouldn’t bet on it. Competing forms will likely alter how we pay with or without cards.

As a starting point, consider contactless credit cards which use short-range proximity technology to securely complete payments via a contactless-enabled checkout terminal. An A.T. Kearney study highlights the value of contactless cards at the point of sale (POS):

• Strong US consumer adoption of contactless cards could translate into a reduction in retail cash payment volume of about $190 billion through 2022.
• Merchant infrastructure for accepting contactless payments is already in place in the US, with 70 percent of POS terminals having the necessary hardware.
• US banks could see incremental card-related earnings of more than $2 billion between now and 2022 as a result of issuing contactless cards.

The Cryptocurrency Threat

In a recent Forbes article, Arran Stewart, co-owner and CVO of Job.com, explains how bitcoin could substitute for credit cards. Credit cards could be replaced with simple wallet verification that could be confirmed “with something as simple as a fingerprint. We are already used to doing the same and similar behavior with Apple Pay.  This is far more secure and efficient as it would allow retailers to receive payment for goods and services much faster. The only roadblock to this becoming reality is the stability of the crypto market, which will come in time and as transaction volumes continue to increase.”

This is concerning for companies like Visa and MasterCard, which dominate the credit card payment industry, and for the banks that issue these cards and take their own cut.

On the other hand, it is good news for bitcoin investors, because it will raise the adoption rates for day to day transactions and boost its price.

While bitcoin poses a threat, enthusiasts should temper their enthusiasm. Merchants would be happy to replace credit cards with bitcoin, but shoppers are not likely to give up their credit cards for an obvious reason. Credit cards alter the trade-off between the pleasures of acquiring something versus the pain of paying for it. We get the pleasure now and defer the pain until later.

“Paying with a card fundamentally changes the way we spend money, altering the calculus of our financial decisions,” explains Jonah Lehrer, author of How We Decide. “When you buy something with cash, the purchase involves an actual loss — your wallet is literally lighter. Credit cards, however, make the transaction abstract, so that you don’t really feel the downside of spending money.”

Nontraditional Stakeholders

Companies outside of the credit industry are stepping into the arena. This changes some of the stakeholders and potentially how we view credit cards. Apple announced the Apple Card is expected to launch later this summer.

According to Fast Company, Apple worked on the card in conjunction with Goldman Sachs, but the card and its services itself are very much designed by Apple. More specifically, no one needs a physical Apple Card. When you sign up and are approved for one, the Apple Card will become instantly available on your iPhone. It will live in the Wallet app where users will use it via Apple Pay. The Apple Card also has other unique benefits, such as daily cash back and a number of software-based features that make managing the card much more convenient than traditional credit cards.

While we still may have a traditional credit card in our wallets, chances are that we will use it less and less in the coming months. Even if you don’t think cryptocurrency will entice you, maybe the Apple Card or contactless cards will.

Related article:

Mobile Payments “Growing” with American Consumers

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Ryan Lahti is the managing principal of OrgLeader and author of The Finesse Factor: How to Build Exceptional Leaders in STEM Organizations. Stay up to date on Ryan’s STEM organization tweets here: @ryanlahti

(Photo: Credit Card, Pixabay)

Few of us freeze our credit files at the three major credit bureaus (Equifax, TransUnion and Experian), even after massive data breaches like the one at Equifax. This breach compromised the private data of as many as 145 million Americans.

Gartner Research analyst Avivah Litan estimated about 2 percent to 3 percent of U.S. consumers currently have freezes on their credit. She thinks the Equifax breach disclosed on September 7 might push that to 5 percent. Meanwhile, Credit Karma saw a tenfold increase in the number of consumers freezing at least one credit report the week after the breach was announced. After increasing every day starting September 8, activity dropped off on September 15. A Credit Sesame analysis of 4.5 million TransUnion credit profiles showed as of September 25, just 0.44 percent of them had a freeze on their TransUnion report. This was an 0.8 percent increase from June.

The Reasons Why

Why don’t consumers freeze their credit files? Some may be confused about what a credit freeze does or how to put one in place. While 47 percent of Credit Sesame members surveyed said they were “extremely concerned” about their data security, 25 percent didn’t know the definition of a freeze. Others may have tried and given up when heavy traffic caused glitches at credit bureau websites after the breach.

Another disincentive may be the fee to freeze, which ranges from $3 to $10. According to advocacy group U.S. PIRG, consumers as a whole will have to shell out $4.1 billion to freeze their credit files and prevent fraudsters from using personal information possibly exposed in the Equifax breach. To ease this burden, Equifax is waiving its freeze fees until the end of January. Then it will offer a new service that will let consumers lock and unlock—an easier way to place and remove a freeze—for free and for life. Hopefully, TransUnion and Experian will follow suit.

When you freeze your credit report, you essentially stop fraudsters from opening a credit card, a mortgage or any other kind of credit account in your name. Unfortunately, you must do this one by one at the three major credit bureaus. Once this is done, a lender trying to check your creditworthiness will find the data unavailable. If it’s really you applying for credit, you’ll use a PIN to temporarily lift the freeze for the lender. In some states that’s free, but in many cases you’ll pay from $2 to $10 for the lift.

How effective is a freeze? Gartner’s Litan estimated that it will protect you from fewer than 5 percent of financial crimes to which you are vulnerable. Still, it’s better than nothing.

Perhaps another reason we don’t freeze our credit is that we are just uncomfortable without our wallet-sized enablers. Three out of four people surveyed in a CreditCards.com consumer poll said they had made an impulse purchase at some point. Of that group, 16 percent had spent $500 or more, and 10 percent had spent $1,000 or more. Keep this in mind as you begin your holiday shopping and navigate enticing sales.

Getting Credit Protection

If you want to protect your credit files, go to the websites for Equifax, TransUnion and Experian. You could also get additional information at the Federal Trade Commission’s site. If you prefer telephone, here are the numbers for the three credit bureaus:

Equifax: (800) 349-9960

Experian: (888) 397-3742

TransUnion: (888) 909-8872

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Ryan Lahti is the founder and managing principal of OrgLeader. Stay up to date on Ryan’s STEM organization tweets here: @ryanlahti

(Photo: Credit Report by Nick Youngson)

When mobile payment technology first became available, some experts referred to it as a solution in need of a problem. The EMV chip card switch provided it with a very real problem that it can fix. Most of the new chip card readers (including Square) can handle the near field communication (NFC) technology used by mobile payment services such as Apple Pay and Android Pay, according to Wired magazine. As you may recall, the idea of using NFC phones to pay at the checkout counter received a big boost in the fall of 2014 when Apple unveiled Apple Pay with the cooperation of a trio of big-name credit card companies. This meant not only that Apple Pay would be available on the newest iPhones, but that Apple would put its considerable corporate weight behind the service. So, how are mobile payments doing at this time in the United States?

In the most recent study of mobile banking and payments by First Annapolis Consulting, the share of Americans who have made at least one mobile payment in the past 12 months is now 74 percent, up from 58 percent just six months ago and 40 percent in May 2015. This leaves 26 percent of respondents who have yet to try mobile payments, whether it’s using their phone to make an in-app purchase, pay a bill, receive loyalty points on an in-store purchase, or make any number of other mobile money transfer transactions.

When asked what’s holding them back from mobile payments, the most common response from almost two-thirds of the nonusers (64 percent) was concern about security. This response was similar across all age groups.

A feeling that they simply don’t need mobile payments was second at 42 percent followed by privacy concerns at 41 percent. Respondents ages 45-54 (the oldest age group delineated in the findings) were more likely than younger respondents to cite the concerns.

The First Annapolis Consulting study was conducted in June among 1,528 U.S. consumers age 18-54 who both own a smartphone and have a checking account or debit card. Like its previous editions conducted in December 2015 and May 2015, the sample demographics were generally aligned with U.S. Census distributions.

While mobile payment technology has been around for a while, it looks like momentum is slowly building with consumers. Mobile payments via Apple Pay and Android Pay are much faster than card payments. Once you link these services to your credit card account, you make payments by simply holding your phone up to a compatible reader. When security and privacy concerns are addressed and the value of mobile payments is communicated more effectively to consumers, the momentum in the U.S. is likely to increase at a faster rate.

Related posts:

U.S. EMV Chip Card Progress?

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Ryan Lahti is the founder and managing principal of OrgLeader, LLC. Stay up to date on Ryan’s STEM-based organization tweets here: @ryanlahti

(Photo: Apple Payment Square by Mybloodtypeiscoffee – Own work, CC BY 4.0)

Retailers in the U.S. and the U.K. have implemented security checks, such as 3D Secure and Verified by Visa during the online checkout process. Unfortunately, the checks may hinder the shopping experience which can translate into lost sales according to ZDNet. In the U.K., 18 percent of online shoppers abandoned their baskets due to “excessive payment security checks” in 2012. U.S. companies lost $118 billion in potential sales in 2015 due to “false positives,” transactions that are wrongly declined because financial institutions incorrectly associate them with fraud.

In order to simplify the online shopping experience for its cardholders, MasterCard is rolling out its new mobile payment verification services, selfie pay and fingerprint payment, this year in Canada, the U.S., and the U.K. To use selfie pay, cardholders will have to download MasterCard’s app to their mobile device or tablet. Customers will still need to provide their credit card details to make purchases, but if further authentication is required, they can hold their device up to their face and take a photograph. If they don’t want to use a photograph, they can use the device’s fingerprint sensor.

To prevent fraudsters from abusing the service, MasterCard said users will have to blink to prove they’re not holding a photograph up to the camera. The company said it also has algorithms in place that can detect if someone is using a previously-filmed video.

The selfie pay and fingerprint payment concepts propose a simpler alternative to more traditional security steps (e.g., CAPTCHA) at checkout. Called biometric authentication, a credit card customer’s photo or fingerprint could replace these cumbersome checks.

“I think the whole biometric space is a great way of protecting yourself when you are doing payments,” explained Ann Cairns, head of international markets for MasterCard, in a CNBC interview. “There are a whole range of biometrics that say ‘I’m me, I’m making a payment’ and it just makes the whole thing more secure.”

MasterCard is not the only company to use biometrics to better secure the payment process. Amazon believes so strongly in selfie pay that it has filed a patent for it. The Apple Pay platform on iOS already gives iPhone and iPad owners the option to authenticate payments with a fingerprint at select online retailers and stores. On Android devices that have built-in fingerprint sensors, such as Samsung’s smartphones and tablets, users can use Android Pay or Samsung Pay to make payments with fingerprint authentication. The Apple Pay, Android Pay and Samsung Pay platforms already work with MasterCard credit cards.

Late last year, MasterCard ran concurrent pilots in the Netherlands and the U.S. Over three months, 750 ABN Amro Bank customers in the Netherlands and 240 employees of California-based First Tech Federal Credit Union participated by choosing between selfie or fingerprint authentication.

Combined data from both pilots show that 92 percent of all participants thought MasterCard’s selfie pay and fingerprint payment were more convenient than typing in passwords, and 83 percent believed it was more secure. Overall, 93 percent said fingerprint authentication was convenient, and 71 percent rated facial recognition as convenient.

Selfies and fingerprints are just the beginning. According to The Verge, MasterCard is currently looking into other biometric security options beyond these two options. Specifically, the company is considering using sensors to read a person’s electrocardiogram — the unique electrical signal produced by his or her heart.

“While even fingerprint or facial recognition requires input from the user, heartbeat recognition can take place seamlessly in the background,” The Verge explained. “You just wear a bracelet, and it sends a signal to devices you’re near to prove you’re you.”

If you’re tired of typing in a three-digit security code or trying to decipher the CAPTCHA number and letter codes in order to enter them, alternatives are on the way. Selfie pay and other biometrics will enable you to actually use physical parts of you to complete your payment transactions.

Related news briefs:

Credit Card Changes in the Next 5 Years

U.S. EMV Chip Card Progress?

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Ryan Lahti is the founder and managing principal of OrgLeader, LLC. Stay up to date on Ryan’s STEM-based organization tweets here: @ryanlahti

(Photo: Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge, Flickr)

How has the implementation of EMV chip cards gone in the U.S. given the October 2015 deadline? There appears to be more work that needs to be done. According to a recently published piece by Greg Buzek, President of IHL Services, only 8.5 percent of merchants are able to accept the new cards, which he describes as “EMV ready.” At last count, less than 40 percent of consumer debit and credit cards contained the necessary chip.

This technology is already in place across Europe and Canada. Instead of using the old-school technique of “swiping” credit cards to gather information from the magnetic strip, the consumer is supposed to insert an EMV card into the front of the card reader (a process called “dipping”) and wait for the transaction to complete before extracting it from the machine.

The reason for the October 2015 mandate is not a secret. As Paula Rosenbloom points out in Forbes, banks and the credit card industry pushed for it to transfer risk from the banks to retailers. Consumers do not have any credit card-related risk, but retailers who are not EMV compliant now assume the liability for fraudulent transactions arising from stolen credit cards.

Walk into most retail stores and you’ll see that they have updated their sales terminals to accommodate swiping or dipping. Although this flexibility is available, a limited number actually ask you to dip. If you go to Target, CVS, Rite-Aid, Home Depot, Walmart and some independent retailers, consumers will be asked to dip. Otherwise, swiping still seems to be the norm. One of the key reasons for this slow transition is the fact that dipping increases the duration of the transaction, because the EMV card has to remain in the reader until the transaction is complete. While the increase in transaction time is in seconds or minutes, this is still enough to irritate many consumers and deter them from dipping.

According to Bloomberg Gadfly, new sales terminals that read EMV chip cards also include “near field communication” technology, which allows consumers to wave their phones near a terminal to make purchases. As a result, growth in EMV terminals combined with consumer impatience regarding dipping could boost in-store phone payments.

Although mobile payments, like Apple Pay or Samsung Pay have gained only a small share of the payment process, Chris Gardner, chief product officer of PayPal’s Paydiant team, expects that near field communication technology will increasingly displace cards at the point of sale as consumers grow frustrated with EMV chip cards. Gardiner explains, “EMV will benefit mobile [adoption]. It’s very unnatural and it takes a long time — it [EMV] is slow as molasses and pretty much every mobile phone factor is better. Our banks keenly want to make payments easier and better for clients so you will use their payment credentials.” The next six months should provide a good indication of whether EMV chip cards will really get some traction in the payment process.

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Ryan Lahti is the founder and managing principal of OrgLeader, LLC. Stay up to date on Ryan’s STEM-based organization tweets here: @ryanlahti

(Photo: Chip-Enabled Charles Schwab Visa Card, Flickr)

As of October 1, U.S. retailers were required to upgrade their point-of-sale terminals to accept new EMV chip credit cards or be liable for any fraudulent charges. According to Reuters, some large U.S. retailers are trying to take it a step further by using personal identification numbers (PINs) with the new embedded chip credit cards to prevent counterfeit card fraud. More specifically, Target is moving ahead with a chip-and-PIN rollout, and Wal-Mart plans to do the same.

As for banks, they favor using chip cards verified by old-school signatures, even though chip-and-PIN usage has led to lower fraud over the decade they have been used in Europe and elsewhere. Banking groups say there are better approaches than PINs for verifying customers and have asked retailers to embrace tokenization and encryption to prevent theft of credit card numbers. “PIN is a static data element that would not have a meaningful impact on overall payments fraud,” said Electronic Payments Coalition spokesman Sam Fabens. Banks say that PINs only provide additional fraud protection when criminals seek to use lost or stolen cards, a situation that Aite Group estimates accounts for only 14 percent of fraud.

An additional reason for the slower acceptance of chip-and-PIN technology by banks is that PINs are expensive to put into practice. Gartner analyst Avivah Litan estimates that banks would have to invest hundreds of millions of dollars in network improvements to support them.

Those in the security field have a different perspective. Lance James, chief scientist with cyber intelligence firm Flashpoint, explains, “The PIN is definitely a must. It’s one extra step that provides true two-factor authentication.” EMV chips thwart criminals who use stolen data to create counterfeit cards, a category that Aite Group estimates accounts for 37 percent of that fraud.

In a recent article, Forbes pointed out that an FBI public service announcement in early October raised questions regarding the absence of PIN authentication, indicating that the combination of chip-equipped cards and PINs are significantly more secure than using decades-old signature verification. This announcement aligned with the FBI Director who stated at a congressional hearing, “I think the experts at the FBI would say PIN and chip is more secure than PIN and signature.” The October announcement was later revised to de-emphasize the use of PINs. Some believe this revision was due to pressure from the banking industry.

While the increase in credit card security seems to make sense, challenges emerge when it comes to implementation. Wal-Mart faces obstacles, because its credit card partner, Synchrony Financial, is not yet able to handle PINs on credit cards. Target and Wal-Mart seem to be supportive of chip-and-PIN cards, but other retailers are not quite there yet. “Our approach is chip and signature,” said Macy’s spokesman Jim Sluzewski. JC Penney said it has no plans to introduce PINs and has yet to begin processing any chip transactions.

Furthermore, there is currently only one PIN credit card available through a major U.S. retailer, a MasterCard that Target issues through Toronto Dominion Bank. If that is not enough, a retail industry executive said that some retailers have privately confided that they fear widespread PIN adoption could result in slower lines and lost sales from shoppers who forget PINs.

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Ryan Lahti is the founder and managing principal of OrgLeader, LLC. Stay up to date on Ryan’s STEM-based organization tweets here: @ryanlahti

(Photo: US Chip-Enabled Payment Cards, Flickr)

Innovation is a part of our daily lives whether it is what we drive, devices we use to communicate or how we shop. The credit cards that we use are no different. According to Credit.com and Boston.com, there are five ways that credit cards are likely to change by 2020.

Chip and PIN everywhere. While 2015 will be the year that most merchants in the United States adopt smart-chip compatible terminals, the technological migration away from magnetic stripes is far from complete. Nearly all card issuers and merchants are just now using the chip-and-signature implementation, which just replaces the magnetic stripe with a more advanced microchip. Consequently, if someone steals your credit card, it can still be used in a fraudulent manner. The next step is to migrate to the chip-and-PIN standard, already in use in Europe and several other parts of the world. Only when credit card transactions require the input of a personal identification number (as ATM transactions do now) will we truly reach the next level of security.

One card for all. There are currently several companies vying to introduce a single credit card that will store and transmit the information from all of your accounts. Currently, these cards cost more than $100 each, and none has proved itself in the marketplace. Cardholders can expect that the quality of these payment forms will rapidly improve while the price falls to a level considered to be an affordable expense.

A consistent smartphone protocol for credit cards. When it introduced Apple Pay, Apple put a spotlight on the idea that we could make payments with our mobile devices. Nonetheless, the adoption of the iPhone and the Apple Pay standard has been far from universal. So it seems logical that the next step in the evolution of mobile payments will be an industry-wide technological standard, rather than a proprietary one, much like the EMV smart chip and the magnetic stripe that came before it.

Credit transactions without a card. The purpose of the credit card itself is to authenticate the transaction, and it isn’t very good at doing so. Since credit cards can be lost, stolen, damaged, or just left at home, perhaps the ultimate solution will be to carry no credit card at all. Inexpensive fingerprint readers, like the ones in every new iPhone, could be easily included in merchant terminals, allowing us to leave our cards at home. When shopping over the phone or online, our devices could store and transmit our account information, making the plastic credit card itself into a relic of past.

Security standardization in the credit card industry. Thanks in large part to the security advances made by technology companies such as Apple and Google, there will soon be a system of security standards that will be affordable and accessible to everyone.

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Ryan Lahti is the founder and managing principal of OrgLeader, LLC. Stay up to date on Ryan’s STEM-based organization tweets here: @ryanlahti

(Photo: Credit Cards, Flickr)

In some ways, retailers and credit card companies are trying to be proactive in the fight against credit card fraud. For example, Visa developed software to detect whether it is you or an impostor who is using your credit card at a gas station pump. The use of new EMV-chip credit cards will help prevent fraud, because they contain a chip that generates a unique code for each transaction.

There is no doubt that these are steps in the right direction. Software and chip technology are innovative solutions that have taken time to come to fruition. Unfortunately while resources are used to develop these more complex solutions, businesses often forget to consider simpler, more obvious solutions for credit card fraud.

A case in point is the failure to change the default passcode on credit card machines. According to CNNMoney, 90 percent of credit card readers currently operating at retailers use the same passcode. This passcode, set by default on credit card machines dating back to 1990, can be found via a quick Google search. With this passcode, an attacker can obtain control of a store’s credit card reader by hacking into the machine and infecting it with malware that steals customers’ payment data according to cybersecurity firm Trustwave.

The problem is essentially an instance of passing the buck. According to Trustwave executive Charles Henderson, manufacturers sell the card readers to distributors. These distributors then sell them to retailers. Unfortunately, no one believes it’s their responsibility to change the master code. They think security of the point of sale falls on someone else’s plate.

This is a misperception of all parties, because it should be a shared responsibility. Retailers should be securing their own readers, and the resellers should be helping them to do it. For more information on the laxity in security measures, take a look at the Verizon 2015 PCI Compliance Report.

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Ryan Lahti is the founder and managing principal of OrgLeader, LLC. Stay up to date on Ryan’s STEM-based organization tweets here: @ryanlahti

(Photo: Home Depot Credit Card, Flickr)

EMV is an abbreviation for Europay, MasterCard and Visa. These are the three companies that developed the global standard for cards equipped with computer chips and the technology needed to authenticate chip-card transactions. According to Creditcards.com, there is a substantial difference in security between magnetic-stripe and EMV-chip cards. Magnetic-stripe cards contain data that does not change. When someone accesses this data, sensitive card and cardholder information can be used to make purchases. Consequently, magnetic-stripe cards are key targets for counterfeiters who convert stolen card data to cash. Counterfeit cards account for 37% of all U.S. credit card fraud according to a 2014 report by Aité Group.

Unlike magnetic-stripe cards, every time an EMV-chip card is used to make a payment, the card chip generates a unique transaction code that can only be used for that transaction. If someone steals the chip information from a specific point of sale, typical card duplication will not work. The transaction code cannot be used for a new transaction. So, the card is denied.

EMV-chip cards do provide increased security against counterfeiting, but experts like Julie Conroy, research director for retail banking at Aité Group, expect fraud to shift to “card not present” (CNP) forms. Card not present fraud involves using stolen card numbers to purchase items online. In the United Kingdom, CNP fraud rose 79% in the first three years after the country switched to chip cards, and it more than doubled in Australia and Canada. The most attractive things CNP criminals purchase are high-value items that can easily be resold or converted to cash (e.g., jewelry, gift cards and electronics).

The approaching reality of increased online fraud means U.S. retailers will need to improve controls to ensure that they know that their customers are authentic. This typically involves new risk-management technologies and additional security questions or passwords. For consumers, there are two key recommendations for reducing online fraud. First, closely your monitor credit card bills in order to detect suspicious charges. Second, review your credit reports periodically to ensure they’re accurate.

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Ryan Lahti is the founder and managing principal of OrgLeader, LLC. Stay up to date on Ryan’s STEM-based organization tweets here: @ryanlahti

According to a 2013 Federal Reserve study, the total number of credit card transactions in the U.S. was 26.2 billion in 2012, and the total value of these transactions was $2.48 trillion. With these staggering numbers showing how much credit cards are used along with the money at stake, consumers, government agencies and businesses alike are paying more attention to the impact of credit card fraud and ways to avoid it.

In the government sector, the Federal Trade Commission has provided recommendations to consumers on how to protect against credit card fraud (e.g., carry only the card you need for a given outing and keep copies of receipts to compare to transactions on credit card statements). In the business sector, credit card companies continue to look for more innovative anti-fraud solutions.

Creditcards.com reported that Visa had the largest U.S. purchase volume in 2012 ($981 billion) which surpassed its closest competitor by over $400 billion. So, you might expect Visa to come up with new ways for defending against credit card fraud. According to the Washington Post, Visa has recently decided to focus on a point of sale that is one of the easiest places for credit card fraud to occur. This point of sale is the gas pump. Stolen credit cards are easy to use when filling a vehicle with gasoline, because the pumps today are self-service by design. Therefore, all a credit card thief has to do is just swipe the card at the pump.

To combat this type of fraud, Visa is launching software called Visa Transaction Advisor to detect whether it is you or an impostor who is using your credit card at the pump. This software analyzes 500 pieces of data (e.g., location, past transactions, etc.) in fractions of a second. Based on this analysis, the software generates a risk score on a scale from 0 to 99. A higher score means there is a greater chance that the card being used has been stolen from its true owner. Each gas station sets its own risk threshold. If the credit card generates a risk score that exceeds the threshold, a message will be displayed at the pump directing the customer to see the attendant inside the station. Once the customer sees the attendant, the attendant can request additional information to verify that this individual is the true owner of the card.

Visa’s vice president of risk products and business intelligence, Mark Nelsen, pointed out that the true owner will go see the attendant to finish the transaction once the message is displayed at the pump. On the other hand, the fraudulent credit card user will be deterred and leave the station. Although the software is new, it appears to have promising possibilities. In a pilot test, Chevron reported a 23% drop in gas pump fraud. To date, approximately 25,000 gas stations have agreed to use the software.

For more information see, Visa Transaction Advisor, FTC credit card fraud protection and Federal Reserve study.

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Ryan Lahti is the managing principal of OrgLeader and author of The Finesse Factor: How to Build Exceptional Leaders in STEM Organizations. Stay up to date on Ryan’s STEM organization tweets here: @ryanlahti

(Photo: Visa Credit Card, Pixabay)