Tuesday, January 06, 2009
Credit cards at the pumps: Use PINs or passwords
Published: Tuesday January 6, 2009 MYT 4:32:00 PM
Updated: Tuesday January 6, 2009 MYT 6:27:36 PM
Credit cards at the pumps: Use PINs or passwords
By YUEN MEIKENG and M. SHAMINEE
PETALING JAYA: The National Consumer Complaints Centre (NCCC) is proposing that consumers using credit cards to pay for petrol at the pumps be required to key in a personal identification number (PIN) or password.
“There should be more efforts to step up security when consumers use their credit cards to buy fuel,” said the centre’s chief executive Muhammad Sha’ani Abdullah.
“This is because anyone may misuse the card as the current system only requires the user to swipe the card without any signature or security number,” he said at a press conference here Tuesday.
The proposal will be sent to Bank Negara Malaysia by this week, added Muhammad Sha’ani, who is also Fomca (Federation of Malaysian Consumer Associations) secretary-general.
He said that cases relating to lost credit cards and fraud have increased from 809 in 2007 to over 1,000 last year, of which most took place at petrol stations.
Muhammad Sha’ani pointed out that not all credit card issuers have a flagging system whereby warnings were issued to users when unusual transactions were detected, such as when a credit card is used multiple times at the same premise on the same day.
“If banks are not equipped with such a simple security system, then Bank Negara should just stop credit card usage altogether,” Muhammad Sha’ani said.
He added that Bank Negara should also prohibit third parties from recruiting credit card users and only allow licensed banks to do so.
