Savvy shoppers in Asia Pacific keep clear of payment fraud with safe payment practices, according to the Visa Asia Pacific Payment Card Security Study .
The study found that the most popular prevention measures used by respondents in the last 12 months to keep fraud at bay were using Verified by Visa (32 per cent), avoiding shopping at unfamiliar merchants (32 per cent) and using different passwords/personal identification numbers (PINs) for different purposes (31 per cent).
Somboon Krobteeranon, country manager of Visa Thailand, said "Payment security is a shared responsibility and our survey findings show many consumers in Asia Pacific are taking the lead in fraud prevention. Visa is helping consumers with payment security solutions and sharing its expertise with participants in the payment system to help keep fraud rates steady at near historic lows."
Respondents were also polled on the main issues they had with information/payment card-related security. Password hacking (55 per cent); identity theft via stolen personal items (50 per cent); and ATM skimming (49 per cent) were their top three concerns. In the Study, more respondents from Indonesia (52 per cent) and Singapore (48 per cent) felt vulnerable about payment card fraud.
Although respondents overall felt that cardholders were primarily responsible for preventing fraud, they also thought companies that process the transactions (27 per cent) were the most at fault when fraud occurs. This is followed by merchants and retailers, and the consumer using the card (both 18 per cent).
Nearly one-third (31 per cent) of respondents had used different passwords/PINs for a variety of purposes in the past 12 months as a way to protect their personal financial products such as ATM cards, debit cards, credit cards and online banking. The Study found that respondents on average change their passwords/PINs for financial products once every two to three months.
Somboon said "Most cardholders are familiar with the ease and security that passwords and PINs can offer. They can help protect cards from fraudulent use if stolen and allow merchants to verify the identity of the cardholder. The simple rules to observe with passwords and PINs are to change them regularly, use a different password or PIN for each purpose, and ensure you do not use words or numbers that are easily predictable. Security experts also advise that strong passwords should consist of random letters and numbers."
Respondents said the most likely options they would consider over the next two years to help fight fraud were registering to receive alerts on their mobile phones (51 per cent), registering to receive phone calls from the bank (48 per cent) and only shopping with familiar merchants (46 per cent).
