Credit Card Information Hacking

In their recent 2016 Crime Survey, Gallup indicates that Americans are more likely than they were a year ago to say their households were the victims of credit card information theft.  The 2016 survey indicates 27% of Americans now say they or someone in their household had information stolen from a credit card used in a store in spite of recent efforts to make the use of credit cards in stores safer. The theft of credit card information tops the Gallup list of 9 crimes listed in the 2016 Survey and has been the number one crime since credit card information theft was first added to the survey in 2014.

Credit Card Companies Adding Chips

Both Visa and Master Card rapidly replacing the magnetic strip cards with the new chip cards that generate a unique code for each transaction.  Master Card is reporting that 88% of their customer credit cards now have the chip to protect information from hackers.

U.S. Stores Slow in Adding Terminals

The disconnect is among U.S. stores.  With a third of the stores able to process chip transactions according to Visa last August, the National Retail Federation indicates their members find the cards do not provide enough security along with the credit card company’s terminals slowness in signing off on transactions. 

Who is Worrying

Higher earning households are most likely to report credit card information theft and mostly likely to have cards – and are 40% less likely to worry frequently to them.  Middle-income Americans are 46% likely to worry about information theft.  The least likely to worry are lower-income Americans at 30%.

Gallup Bottom Line

According to the Gallup 2016 Crime Survey, the bottom line of their responses include:

“Concerns about hacking have produced a worldwide transition to machines that accept chip-enabled cards. The pressure on businesses in the U.S. ratcheted up last year on October 1 when merchants without chip-reading terminals became liable for fraudulent transactions from counterfeit cards.”

“At this point the changes taking place in the U.S. have neither allayed the fears of consumers that their credit card information will be stolen nor reduced the percentage of Americans saying their households have been victimized.”

“As differences between merchants and credit card companies are resolved, a broader rollout of chip-reading terminals in U.S. businesses could bring a drop in credit card information theft and a subsequent lessening of worries about the crime.”

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