Credit card thieves move online as chips cut in-store fraud

A customer uses a Visa Inc. chip credit card at a Wal-Mart Stores Inc. location in Burbank, California, U.S., on Tuesday, Nov. 22, 2016. Consumer hardline retailers are hopeful Black Friday will provide a strong start to the holiday shopping season, but any lift may come at the expense of margins, as the landscape has become increasingly promotional. Photographer: Patrick T. Fallon/Bloomberg

The adoption of credit-card chip technology by US retailers is having an unintended consequence: Criminals are moving from brick-and-mortar stores to the Internet. 

The use of stolen card data to pay for merchandise on websites, in mobile apps and by dialling call centres surged 40% last year, according to a report from Javelin Strategy & Research released Feb 1. That’s forcing merchants to spend billions on online fraud protection in an effort to detect when a crook is using someone else’s card number.