How Visa Credit Cards Are Keeping You Safe From Fraud
Stephanie Ericksen, Vice President of Global Risk Products for Visa, explains how the company is stepping up its card security. Despite a series of high profile data breaches, Ericksen says the average consumer is actually very safe.
Ericksen notes 95% of transactions made in the U.S. are now made using chip-enabled cards. Merchants with chip-enabled readers have reported a 66% drop in fraud cases.
Visa is exploring biometric card security, as well. Iris scanning and voice recognition could be card security options in the future. Ericksen also notes 40% of Visa transactions aren't made using a card at all, but instead through Apple Pay.
An independent watchdog within the IRS reports that while taxpayer services have vastly improved, the agency is still too slow to resolve identity theft cases. And National Taxpayer Advocate Erin Collins says those delays are “unconscionable.” Erin M. Collins said in the report released Wednesday that overall the 2024 filing season went smoothly, though IRS delays in resolving identity theft victim assistance cases are worsening. It took nearly 19 months to resolve self-reported identity theft cases as of January, and Wednesday's report states that now it takes 22 months to resolve these cases.
Amazon.com Inc. surpassed $2 trillion in market value for the first time in afternoon trading on Wednesday. The push higher for Amazon’s stock market valuation comes a little more than a week after Nvidia hit $3 trillion and briefly became the most valuable company on Wall Street. Nvidia’s chips are used to power many AI application and its valuation has soared as a result. Amazon has also been making big investments in AI as global interest has grown in the technology. Most of the company’s focus has been on business-focused products.
Climate change doesn’t just mean more extreme weather – it also leads to billions of dollars in lost productivity, tourism, and stresses infrastructure.