Credit cards opened a new way for criminals to steal. In 1959, the FBI identified a new kind of criminal, "credit card thief." This thief stole credit cards and forged names (Brean 119). He also got credit cards and used them to buy things he could never pay back. Joseph Miraglia, 19 year old office clerk making $73/week, was one of them. He spent $10,000 using credit cards in less than a month ("Fun on the Card" 100). Cards stolen by mail carriers before delivery occurred ("Postal Theft Laid to Girl" 70). Today, this thief steals credit card numbers from trash or computers "through hacking or network intrusion" (Anderson; "FTC Facts for Consumers"). In 2012, the "total amount of credit card fraud worldwide" was $5.55 billion ("Credit Card Fraud Statistics"). The Secret Service "works tirelessly to foster a strong partnership with the credit card industry and related financial institutions, in order to identify and effectively address any evolving fraud trends" (Anderson).
Before (Pick Pocket)
*Riskier for thief *Physically steal cash *Easier to catch in act *Harder to catch after act *Consumer more risk |
After ("Credit Card Fraud")
*Less risky for thief *Stealing in secret *Harder to catch in act *Easier to catch after act *Consumer more protected |
(Evans and Schmalensee 30-33; Mayer 122, 123, 141; O'Neil 48-51)
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"Credit and charge fraud costs cardholders and issuers hundreds of millions of dollars each year." ~Federal Trade Commission ("FTC Facts for Consumers") |
Fraud (Reilly)
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Crime 2012
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"Dealing with the balance of ease of access for the credit card customers and the need to better safeguard and verify credit card information,...[and the] need to standardize the operating procedures in verifying the card holder's identity before the transaction occurs" are the most difficult parts of dealing with credit card crime. ~Jim Anderson, Secret Service Agent (Anderson) |
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("Credit Card Fraud Statistics")
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(Citibank Identity Theft Commercial)
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 (Flanagan) |
Credit cards as a turning point for crime...
Crime has undoubtedly changed by the invention of credit cards because they opened doors to new types of theft.
