The only real security that a man can have in this world is a reserve of knowledge, experience and ability.  Henry Ford

While Henry Ford’s quote is true, we’d like to suggest that there are a few other ways to be secure.  Payment solutions have long been a target for security fraud, but with the right precautions, your fleet and prepaid users can protect themselves and build trust with your brand and your processes.  Because our fleet and prepaid cards connect to our host for processing, all cards issued by our marketers must be used at a recognized site associated with the card issuer.  This adds an additional layer of exclusion for any inappropriate card activity.  In addition, the Intevacon Fleet Card and Prepaid Card can be restricted with a unique PIN number to help protect card users from fraud. 

Card fraud can occur in many different ways.  The biggest way that marketers can protect their cardholders is to enforce PINs for each card.  The approach for security between fleet cards and prepaid cards differs due to the nature of the relationship between the marketer and the card user.  Fleet Card account holders can manage their accounts and create PINs for fleet card users within the Intevacon system by assigning either an explicit PIN for the card or a driver PIN for the driver.  In addition, fleet cardholders can work with card issuers to apply restrictions based on the transactions that are expected on the card.  Purchase limits also ensure that a dollar amount never exceeds the expected value for the account. 

Prepaid Cards, however, involve an anonymous relationship with the card user, and therefore, it is important to order prepaid cards with PINs already assigned.  While PINs are not required for Prepaid Cards, we highly recommend this additional layer of protection.  Each Prepaid card number is provided to the marketer with both a PIN and a reference number—both of these numbers are important for card users who need to report a card as missing or stolen.    We recommend that Marketers order cards with a key tag that includes a scratch off of the PIN and reference number.  An example of this design can be found here.  Aside from protecting the integrity of the card, PINs also instill confidence with card users and therefore encourage use of the card.  Confidence is important for fleet users, but we find it to be a critical element for Prepaid users.  It is also a critical element in protecting cashiers from the temptation or the accusation of fraudulently accessing funds or loading funds onto the Prepaid Card.  Remember, the Prepaid Card functions as cash, so without the restriction of a PIN, anyone is able to make purchases with the card.

While proprietary fleet and prepaid cards are not usual targets for fraud, the statistics of card fraud in general should give card users caution.  According to the Nilson report, issuers, merchants, and acquirers of credit, debit, and prepaid general purpose and private label payment cards worldwide experienced gross fraud losses of $11.27 billion in 2012, an increase of 14.6% from the previous year.¹  Another universal method of protection includes concealing the card number and PIN from observation—when typing the PIN number at the register or at the pump, suggest that your card users cover the keypad to block any viewers or cameras from capturing the PIN.  Skimmers and video cameras have been cited as methods that criminals use to capture card information.²  Lastly, partner with your card users to monitor card transactions for any unusual activity.  Fleet cardholders can access transactions in real time through our system, and Prepaid users can view transactions at this website as long as they have a PIN.  By keeping an eye on reports, card users will be able to detect unusual activity and inactivate cards in real time.

While we continue to have faith in humanity, we cannot help but advise that marketers and card users protect themselves with the easy and available methods of protection offered through the Intevacon System.