Criminology

Criminology

Credit Card Fraud

Credit card fraud is a crime that involves the extraction of information of another credit card user with unauthorized access. The reasons behind this fraud are usually to remove the funds in it, or charge purchases to the account. Credit card fraud is a common problem all over the globe. These frauds do not only affect the victims but also the companies and merchants providing credit cards.

The credit card fraud schemes are categorized in two types of fraud. Firstly, the application fraud is the act of opening a credit card accounts by another person's name (unauthorized). This can only happen if the person making a fraud has sufficient private data about the victim as it helps out in filling out the credit card application. The criminals can also create fake documents under this fraud. In this fraud, the victim usually comes to know about the fraud too late. The other type of fraud category is account takeover, in which the fraud performer gets sufficient information about the victim, to alter the account's billing address. The fraudulent reports about loss of the card to get a new one, and make fake activities with it (Bares, 2007). Credit cards frauds are mostly committed by professional criminals that refer to individuals, or group of people who organize and plot such activities. The increasing ratio of the credit card frauds have resulted in the formation of various governmental laws (state and federal), that focus on the policies of the issuance of credit cards, credit card holder liability, and the penalties for the criminals for their fraudulent act. The criminals involved in such frauds succeed in their purpose on the basis of various schemes which are skimming, counterfeiting cards, or phishing.

In skimming, the person committing the fraud steals the information while a legitimate ...