Protect Against Fraud

Australians make more than 5 billion transactions a year using cards and cheques, at a variety of locations including retail outlets, ATMs, online, over-the-counter and person to person.  These payments are vital to the smooth running of the economy. However, fraud does play a part in any payments system, and the industry is committed to ensuring it is kept to a very low level.

The industry uses a series of measures to keep fraud low, including strict security standards on payments terminals and ATMs, strong encryption for your PIN and card data, the increasing use of chip cards to make counterfeiting much harder and using other techniques such as an SMS to confirm your transaction is genuine.

Should fraud occur, sophisticated fraud identification systems that detect anomalies in transaction patterns and to take appropriate action to validate or reject a payment, allow financial institutions to keep losses relatively low.

Protecting Yourself

There are things that you can and should do as well to protect against fraud.

As an account holder, you should always keep a close eye on your account – check your statements, check that the transactions listed are genuine, and advise your financial institution immediately if you see anything suspicious.

Remember, if you are a victim of payments fraud, the Electronic Funds Transfer (EFT) Code of Conduct  means that you will be not be left out of pocket where you have not contributed to the loss.

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  Get Smart About Card Fraud Online

  Are you a small online business, or thinking of growing your business online soon? It is essential you know how to protect yourself and your customers from online card fraud.

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  Protect Your PIN

  As a cardholder it is vital to look after your PIN – never write it down, never tell anyone else your PIN, and keep it well hidden when entering it into an ATM or payments terminal. 

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  Safeguard Against Skimming 

  As a merchant, you should be aware of card skimming and how to safeguard against it – see here for information about our Safeguard Against Skimming training program, available from your acquirer or terminal service provider

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