China: ATM security for Olympics

China is not a newbie in the ATM and credit card fraud. According to Xinhua News Agency during the first six months of 2007 credit card fraud went up by 29% representing 1,171 cases with 4.46 million yaun involved. The most common way of stealing account details was by attaching monitoring devices directly to automatic teller machines.

As a result of these unpromising statistics, China's central bank and Public Security Ministry directed banks to increase security against credit/debit card fraud for the upcoming Olympic Games in Beijing in August. Now every bank in China is expected to start working on increased security of ATMs and point of sales terminals. In addition to Beijing, five other cities are in the focus of the Public Security Ministry as they will also host parts of the summer Olympic Games.

With the population well over 17 million and a regular annual flow of over 4 million of foreign visitors, Beijing is preparing for another half a million visitors during the Olympics. Over the past several years many banks competing for business have lowered the criteria or simplified the procedures for receiving credit. It became much easier for a customer to obtain a plastic card. By simply supplying some personal information, one can get at least a 5,000 yuan credit limit on their new card. But with the upcoming Olympic Games banks will have to go on a tighter fraud watch!