Visa U.S.A. has announced that fraud on their credit and debit cards is down to a record low of .08 percent of volume in 1997. This level is considerably lower than the .19 percent peak in 1992-1993 and 1996's .11 percent rate. Visa's annual service volume reached $504.9 billion through September 30, 1997.
Visa credits the decline to the following anti-fraud programs:
Card activation program: keeps newly-issued cards inactive until cardholders activate them.
Address Verification Service: flags fraudulent addresses.
Visa's Cardholder Risk Identification Service (CRIS): employs artificial intelligence to identify suspicious purchase patterns.
"Zero Liability" Program: eliminates cardholders' liability if unauthorized transactions are reported within two business days
"Visa U.S.A has made card security a priority," said Bill Stewart, Executive Vice President, Visa U.S.A. said. "While we've pushed fraud to a record low, Visa will keep working to eliminate card fraud. Consumers can join in this effort by treating their Visa card like a thousand dollar bill."
Currently, there are 600 million active Visa cards. For more information about Visa access http://www.visa.com.
