Abacus partners with APCA to urge consumers: “Protect Your PIN”
31 March 2010
Abacus – Australian Mutuals supports APCA’s new “Protect Your PIN” campaign, which is aimed to increase consumer awareness about the importance of PIN protection.
The Australian Payments Clearing Association (APCA), the payments industry self-regulatory body, has launched a new website to help promote consumer PIN awareness, at: www.apca.com.au/protectyourpin
The website explains how consumers can protect themselves from most skimming attacks by taking simple steps like never divulging their PIN to anyone and always covering their hand while entering the PIN.
“Australian credit unions and mutual building societies are very good at alerting their members to potential dangers of fraud, and this campaign is a very important one,” said Abacus – Australian Mutuals CEO Louise Petschler.
“Mutuals like credit unions and building societies support APCA’s Protect Your PIN campaign and urge all Australians to take precautions when using their cards,” said Ms Petschler.
Card skimming occurs when card details are illegally captured from the magnetic stripe and then used to produce counterfeit duplicate cards. Often, fraudsters attempt to capture the PIN as well through “shoulder surfing” or use of hidden cameras.
“With card skimming fraud on the increase in Australia, the best thing consumers can do to reduce their chances of becoming a victim of this kind of fraud is to protect their PIN. Take measures like covering the keypad every time you type in your PIN – both at ATMs and when using EFTPOS – and never divulge your PIN to anyone.
“This campaign builds on the strong foundations mutuals have already embarked on with consumer protection around skimming and covering PIN entry. Mutuals recognise the need to approach fraud prevention from every level and consumer awareness and vigilance are essential to helping combat card skimming and reducing fraud losses.
“Abacus has been involved in the inception and finalisation of this campaign with recent input to the new prevention website – an important step towards educating cardholders with a single message: protect your PIN,” said Ms Petschler.
APCA CEO Chris Hamilton said “Unlike in other countries where card skimming has been prevalent for many years, in Australia we tend to feel uncomfortable about covering the keypad especially when someone like a shop assistant is looking. We want cardholders to know that this practice is vital to card security and should be the norm, not the exception.”
For more information, please contact:
Pamela Eldridge
Senior Adviser - Media, Public Affairs
02 8299 9024, 0423 843 790,
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