France c. 1975 and credit card fraud was rampant. Why? Telephone Bills! Credit card processing was done by telephone. Each time a credit card was processed a ‘call’ was required to the processor. Money conscious retailers batched cards up and processed them with a single call at the end of the day. Credit card fraudsters realized the lack of ‘real time’ verification, manufactured fake cards, and went on a spending spree at the retailer’s expense.
Moreno, you’re welcome!
Roland Moreno, a flip-flop wearing journalist, became aware of the issue. He came to the miraculous conclusion that it’s harder to fake a chip on a card than a mag-stripe (the technological equivalent of an 8-track cassette). Turns out Moreno was dead on. Legislation was passed that gave birth to Chip and Pin credit cards and French credit card fraud plummeted.
The next weakest link – the UK!
The UK, whom was still batching credit cards, was the scammer’s next target. Credit card fraud soared. Chip and Pin legislation was subsequently introduced. Credit card fraud fell and the scammers moved again. The cycle repeated until all of Europe adopted Chip and Pin.
Don’t be the next weakest link
Since EMV (the standard for smart chip cards) was enacted in the US, the NRF recently commented that they’ve seen chargebacks focused on those without EMV Chip capabilities. Are non-EMV compliant retailers being targeted given their inability to fight chargebacks? The historic precedence of targeting the weakest link would certainly suggest so.
Bottom Line: Get EMV or risk suffering the consequences
SuiteRetail believes we’re the only fully integrated EMV compliant POS offering out there for Netsuite and Salesforce. To ensure you aren’t the weakest link, we’re giving away free EMV devices.
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