Visa Card Fraud, Is It a Big Number?
In data obtained by The Green Sheet, Visa fraud losses for 1996 were anticipated to be $375 million. That's in the United States alone, and turns out to be $713 each minute of the day, 24 hours a day.
So, who pays for this?:
Well, we all absorb the losses in the form of our cost in the Visa program. "We" meaning Card Issuers (banks), Acquirers (Card Accepting Banks and some ISOs) and of course, Merchants.
Of the $375 million in card fraud, 37% is from the Card Accepting side and 63% is from Card Issuing side of the Credit Card business, and 54% of all card fraud will be paid by retail merchant establishments, with the balance paid by such segments as airlines and direct marketing firms.
So, in the time it takes you to read this Green Sheet, merchants will have suffered nearly $12,000 in Visa Fraud losses, according to Visa's 1996 Acquirers Workshop.
In the March 1996 Workshop, Visa predicted that Fraud losses, which have been declining since 1995, will drop to $200 million or roughly half of the current level by 1998.
