UK Credit Cardholders Still Falling for Phishing Scams
According to a recent study undertaken by the UK banking association APACS, 3.8% of all UK credit cardholders said they would still respond to a phishing scam email even though they knew that it was likely that the email was a scam. While this may seem bizarre, a serious issue does arise with regard to whether or not UK credit card issuers and banks can be held accountable for a fraud if the person who the subject of the fraud knew that it was likely they were being defrauded at the time the fraud took place.
 Generally, UK insurance companies will not insure someone if they are in someway negligent for the fault that occurs. In the case of UK credit cardholders who knowing click on links they think may be phishing scams and still provide their financial information, it could well be argued that any loss that is then sustained on the credit cardholders account as a result of the phishing scam should be borne by the UK credit cardholder – not the credit card company or insurance company.
While UK credit card issuers have normally been very understanding of frauds committed on UK credit cards, the growing level of Internet based credit card fraud does have them concerned, especially given the success of Chip and PIN in reducing other forms of UK credit card fraud. Consequently, it is likely that the time will soon come when UK credit card issuers start to inform their customers who fall for phishing scams knowing about the dangers of clicking an email link without first having verified the details of the sender that they have to cover the loss on their credit card themselves.
Another alarming development that the APACS survey discovered was the number of UK credit cardholders who were willing to divulge their credit card PIN numbers to relative strangers. Given the fact that the success of Chip and PIN UK credit cards relies heavily on this safety procedure, if you do happen to given out your credit card PIN to a relative stranger you should not be too surprised if your UK credit card issuer then informs you that they will not refund any loss you suffer on your card.
Credit card fraud is a growing problem in the UK and UK credit cardholders should expect their card issuers to taker all reasonable steps to protect themselves from credit card fraud losses, including making credit cardholders pay if the loss is in part caused by the cardholder themselves.
Richard Smith
27th September 2006
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