Remember that story about how a gang in Romania remotely hacked into 200 U.S. restaurant credit card machines and stole millions of dollars from diners. That was not all. In total, the gang allegedly robbed 80,000 diners over the course of a three-year period. Pretty scary stuff, right? Credit card fraud does not only happen with Romanian computer hackers over the internet, any business or person is susceptible to it. That’s what EMV now hopes to change.
Credit card fraud is a risk we are all very aware of but for many years, merchants have had a feeling of security as the business is not held liable for this type of fraudulent activity. A monumental change is currently taking place in the payment space where that liability of fraud will completely shift over to the merchant, that is unless you abide by the new standard in effect this October.
How can you protect your business?
EMV will be the new standard for credit cards and as of October 1st of this year, EMV will be in full effect. EMV is a technology in new credit cards where your payment information is stored on a computer chip that is visible from the front of your credit card. A large percentage of credit card terminals currently in circulation are not equipped to read the EMV microchip. To avoid being held liable, your business must change to a new EMV capable credit card terminal so you can accept this new form of payment.
Why does this change help your business?
America is far behind the rest of the world who has already adopted this new technology. The magnetic stripe credit cards in circulation are highly susceptible to fraud as they store your never changing payment information in one place. Once someone has that information, they can use and copy it as much as they want. With the new EMV smart chip, a unique token is created for each transaction that these new credit card machines are able to read.
How do I make this change?
Simple, talk to us! Sorry if that seems pushy but the deadline is October. The EMV transition is happening if you like it or not so you will want to be prepared. We will educate you throughout the process and make sure your business is safe.
Call: 1-888 592 7075
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