Dr Emily Finch, of the University of East Anglia has been doing a little research into criminal behaviour in the light of the recent move towards Chip & PIN cards. The banks would have us believe that they are a panacea for fraud prevention. Unfortunately as Dr Finch points out, the security measures are only as good as the lowest common denominator and that is the person at the point of sale:
“You go in, you put the card in, you type any number because you don’t know what it is. It won’t go through. The fraudster – because fraudsters are so good with people – says, ‘Oh, it’s no good, I haven’t got the hang of this yet. I could have sworn that was my number… I’ve probably got it confused with my other card.’
“They chat for a bit. The sales assistant, who is either disinterested or sympathetic, falls back on the old system, and swipes the card through.
“Because a relationship of empathy has already been established, and because they have already become accustomed to averting their gaze when people put pin numbers in, they don’t check the signature at all.
“So fraud is actually easier. There is very little vigilance at the point of sale any more. Fraudsters know this and they are taking advantage of it.”
This is no surprise to me. I am well aware that to be effective, a crook has to develop an understanding of human nature – therefore in our complacency we are our own worst enemies
Which is why I am so derisive when the Home Office tells us that Identity Cards will combat fraud – that assertion is of itself a fraud. It assumes that the people checking will be vigilant at all times, yet, going back to Dr Finch’s findings:
“As part of our research – my colleague is male – we have been using each other’s cards to buy things. And not once in the whole period that we did this, did anybody say to me, ‘This is a man’s card, this isn’t your card.'”
Again, entirely unsurprising. If people are looking at the things day in and day out, they will become blasé – it is human nature, after all. According to Dr Finch’s comments reported on the BBC website,
Dr Finch’s research leads her to doubt that any scheme for national ID cards will work, even if it is backed up by biometric data such as eye scans – because the criminals will simply adapt their strategies to try to get around the hurdle.
“The more people rely on the production of a particular piece of identification to verify identity, the less vigilance people will exercise themselves – that’s the problem. If there are ID cards we will trust them to be unassailable.”
Now, I can see this – it is not news to me. Yet the Home Office apparently cannot. I doubt this myself. Rather, I suspect that they are not concerned; as the touted “benefits” are not the ones that the Home Office is seeking. It is more interested in surveillance and social control. Criminal activity – including identity theft – will not affect this, nor will it dampen the enthusiasm of the bureaucratic control freaks who want it.
Recently my PIN number would not work so the assistant asked me to sign TWICE. My normal signature is not much like the one on my card due to the tiny space available. Luckily I use the shop on a regular basis and my card was eventually accepted.