India has seen lowest no of credit card fraud cases: Visa

Payment system provider says that world over there is a rise of 'skimming' frauds in recent cases

Leading payment system provider Visa today said India has witnessed the lowest number of credit card fraud cases compared to other nations, amid a rise of 'skimming' frauds in recent cases.

"Our country witnesses the lowest number of fraud cases in the credit cards space," Visa Group Country Manager for India and South Asia Uttam Nayak told reporters here.

He was replying to questions on the recent cases of fraud reported in the credit card space here.

"There may be some element of skimming in the recent fraud cases. Also, the indication is that there may be e-commerce misuse," Nayak said.

Skimming has been witnessed in the country of late, wherein the card data is copied illegally in an otherwise legitimate transaction, only to be used fraudulently later.

HDFC Bank, the largest credit card issuer in the country, is changing points of sale terminals at some of its merchant locations due to instances of 'skimming' fraud.

Nayak, however, added that the banking system had one of the robust checks and balances to avoid such instances.

"There were a second factor authentication, real time fraud control tolls, and better authorisation tolls among others, to check such instances," Nayak said.

He also pointed out that customers should know which kind of card they have, whether zero liability policy is available with the card or not. In zero liability cards, a customer stays protected from any unauthorised transactions.

Referring to the use of Aadhar cards in boosting the payment ecosystem, Nayak said this has the potential to include people from the rural areas into the banking fold, which would give a boost to the overall payment system environment.

Visa has already tied up with five banks through its payment gateway, using the Aadhar unique ID number to open up bank accounts in unbanked areas.