Study Demonstrates EMV's Protection Of Consumers

By Matt Pillar, chief editor

Mexico has a longstanding reputation for being a safe haven of fraud. Further south in Brazil, international press coverage of Rio’s stint in the international Olympic limelight has been tinged with stories about that country’s undesirable fraudsters. According to new research from ACI Worldwide and Aite Group, those reputations aren’t without merit. According to the study, 2016 Global Consumer Card Fraud: Where Card Fraud Is Coming From, 56 percent of consumers in Mexico experienced card fraud in 2015. Just shy of half of Brazilian consumers were victims of the crime.

Guess who rolled into a very close third place behind Brazil? You guessed it. Right here in the good old US-of-A, 47 percent of American consumers fell victim to card fraud in 2015.

It’s a decidedly rosier picture across the pond. Just 29 percent of consumers in the U.K. suffered the card fraud affliction last year. Twenty seven percent and 18 percent of Italian and German shoppers fell victim to the crime, respectively.  In Hungary, fewer than 10 percent of shoppers were compromised.

This is the second year in a row that the U.S. gained the dubious distinction of being a top-three contender for the card fraud crown.