New Visa Technology Reduces Theft at Gas Pumps

Let’s hear it for the folks at Visa! They have recently invented new software that actually detects whether or not it’s you (or someone posing as you) when you gas up your vehicle (source).

This has long been a big issue, as the gas pump is among the simplest places for those with bad intentions to use a stolen credit card. After all, since these pumps aren’t attended, all they have to do is swipe the card and fuel up!

The first test case was performed recently at Chevron stations … and guess what? The result was a 23-percent decrease in gas pump fraud.

All this begs the question, how does this new technology (known as Visa Transaction Adviser) do what it does? It analyzes, then analyzes some more – all in less than a second. Before you know it, the new Visa software has examined about 500 specific pieces of data that includes your past transactions and the location of the place you’re fueling up. Much of it is the same data already being used to monitor the activity on debit and credit cards.

Once the data has been analyzed, a score is assigned to the data that ranges from zero to 99. Each station is allowed to set its “threshold” to whatever it wants. If your score exceeds the threshold, the gas pump will flash a message telling you to see an attendant inside the store. The theory is, if he or she is crooked, they won’t stick around to get interrogated by the store’s clerk. If the individual does go inside, the clerk then is able to ask for additional verification to prove their identity.

Though it is not easy to know exactly how much fraud actually occurs at the gas pump, many experts surmise it could be about 4-5 times the average amount when compared to other forms of retail sales.

Gas stations have been given until 2017 to implement the new technology, because it will be necessary to install new card readers that include devices with the capability of reading the new cards.

At this rate, who knows? Someday the card readers might even be able to detect whether yours is a credit or debit card!