Phish And Chips: Chip And Pin Readers For Home Shoppers

IN the never-ending battle to thwart online fraudsters, high street banks such as Barclays and NatWest are sending out millions of Chip & Pin card-readers to online customers who want to transfer money over the web.

After inserting your card and entering your pin into the device, a randomly generated number will appear which you then type into your computer for authorisation.

With online fraud reaching near epidemic levels, the banking giants are hoping that the new system will scupper the uber-sophisticated fraudsters who dredge the net for unprotected money.

However, James Roper of online retail lobby group IMRG, is less than enthusiastic. Says he: “It’ll confuse people, it’ll be compromised and it’ll be out of date by the time it comes on the marketplace”. So there.

If the trial is successful, the gizmos, which are the size of a pocket calculator, could also be used for online shopping.

If it flops, you’ll have a piece of technological history which you can flog on eBay for £1.50.

Anorak

Posted: 15th, May 2007 | In: Money Comment | Follow the Comments on our RSS feed: RSS 2.0 | TrackBack | Permalink