[Dave Birch] It looks as if gift cards will need some better PR. The panic has been growing for a while, but I thought it had peaked before Christmas with stories about them being the ideal present for organised criminals in Canada. According the Mounties, such persons use them as “virtual currency” for drug deals and money laundering. Apparently, a recent organized-crime threat assessment for Canada and the United States identified gift cards and prepaid debit cards as one of the tools in the financial-crime kit of organized crime. The assessment was compiled by the RCMP, the FBI and the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration. “All these cards were built for legitimate purposes, obviously,” said Det. Insp. John Sullivan of the Mounties, “But as with any new technology, as soon as criminal organizations see a gap, they exploit it.”
Technorati Tags: fraud, prepay, retail, security
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