CALENDAR

September 20, 2018

Retail Council of Canada Retail Secure 2018

International Centre Mississauga, ON rcclpconference.ca September 23–27, 2018

ASIS International Global Security Exchange

Las Vegas (NV) Convention Center gsx.org September 25, 2018

Cyber Security Summit: New York

New York Hilton Midtown cybersummitusa.com October 1–3, 2018

Loss Prevention Research Council IMPACT 2018

University of Florida, Gainesville lpresearch.org October 3–4, 2018

Carolinas Organized Retail Crime Alliance 3rd Annual Conference

Sheraton Imperial Hotel Durham, NC corca.org October 8–11, 2018

Coalition of Law Enforcement and Retail (CLEAR) 9th Annual Training Conference

Crown Reef Beach Resort and Waterpark Myrtle Beach, SC clearusa.org October 10–12, 2018

LP Magazine Annual Editorial Board Meeting

The Warwick, Philadelphia, PA losspreventionmedia.com October 16, 2018

Cyber Security Summit: Phoenix

Renaissance Phoenix Downtown cybersummitusa.com October 24, 2018

Florida Retail Federation 2018 LP Conference

Rosen Shingle Creek, Orlando, FL frf.org November 6–8, 2018

Anti-Counterfeit and Currency Expo North America

Las Vegas (NV) Convention Center anticounterfeit-expo.com November 29, 2018

Cyber Security Summit: Los Angeles

The Beverly Hilton Beverly Hills, CA cybersummitusa.com continued from page 61 take advantage during an interrogation.” But couldn’t all of these observations apply to any individual regardless of their sex?

One thing I’ve noticed during my career is that we all have an Achilles heel that we self-impose. Whether it’s interrogating men, women, minors, elderly, or people of another race, we tend to pick a group and tell ourselves that we have a hard time dealing with them. I had my own early on, and guess what? I overcame it. I believe that this occurs when we have a failure with one interrogation and blame it on the fact that the suspect was A, B or C, instead of looking in the mirror and figuring out what it was that we did wrong. From there, it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Countless cultural elements factor into an interrogator’s confidence, too many to count or go into here, plus none of it is backed by scientific research. They are just things that as a society we believe to be true.

Now, before you pound out your letter to the editor, let me finish by saying that, yes, in my experience, female interrogators do have an advantage. But the really interesting question is—why is that? Is it due to their sex, or is it due to necessity?

Credit Card Chip Technology Has Been Effective at Reducing Fraud. But…

By Bill Turner, LPC

We know that the United States was late in adopting widespread use of EMV (chip) credit cards. Finally, in 2015, we began catching up to the rest of the world when it came to the implementation of credit card chip technology. The results have been positive.

According to Visa, counterfeit credit card fraud dollars at US merchants that completed the chip upgrade dropped 76 percent between December 2015 and December 2017. The number of US merchants accepting chip cards jumped from 392,000 in September 2017 to 2.9 million in March 2018. As of March 2018, 97 percent of credit card transactions in the United States were made with chip cards.

BizTech reports that at the end of 2017, there were 7.1 billion EMV-enabled cards in circulation worldwide.

Despite all of these positive numbers, however, the United States is still lagging behind the rest of the world in total EMV saturation.

Drawbacks to Credit Card Chip Technology

So EMV cards have had a dramatic effect on reducing credit card fraud in the United States. But are there any downsides to the adoption of credit card chip technology? As with anything new and revolutionary, the answer is yes. Here are a few.

EMV cards are driving fraudsters to “card-not-present” fraud. Experts say this will be a growing problem for years to come. Javelin reports that card-not-present fraud is now 81 percent more likely than in-person fraud at point-of-sale terminals.

New account fraud has seen more than a 100 percent increase since EMV cards became mainstream. It now accounts for over 20 percent of all fraud losses involving credit cards.

Because EMV cards are hard to duplicate, fraudsters are honing their skills in pure identity theft. According to BizTech, identity fraud victims increased by 8 percent in 2017, affecting 16.7 million consumers.

TechCrunch reports that more and more “shimmers” are being placed inside ATM terminals by fraudsters. The shimmers cannot read chip data but can read magnetic data still present on most cards. Phony magnetic cards can then be produced. Magnetic cards are still widely accepted.

TechTarget reports that on some smart cards not all data is encrypted, which weakens the strength of the card’s protection.

EMV cards have gone a long way to prevent credit card fraud, especially the once common practice of card counterfeiting. But, as we’ve seen, fraudsters are creative and can find numerous ways around chip-implanted cards. So now what?