The slow transition to chip credit cards by U.S. retailers hasnt gone unnoticed by criminals. Counterfeit-card fraud will rise to $4.5 billion in 2016, up 12.5 percent from last year, as crooks ramp up their thievery before all merchants and banks have moved to accept the more secure chip technology, said Julie Conroy, an analyst at financial-industry researcher Aite Group. The theft is especially hurting retailers that hadnt equipped their stores to accept chip cards by Oct. 1, when banks stopped footing the bill for fraud committed at non-compliant locations. “Theres a fire sale, to try to burn through all of the stock of card data that theyve seen,” Conroy said.
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