Certain credit card companies issuing plastic too easily

"Your password is incorrect. Let me ask you some questions to confirm your identification. Are you the one requesting a credit card issuance?” (An employee of a credit card company`s call center)

“Yes.” (Reporter)

“What is your mobile phone number?”

“It’s 010-XXXX-XXXX.”

“Can you give me the number of your apartment unit?"

“It’s 2002.”

“Thank you for confirming your personal information. You can get your credit card at one of our sales outlets within a week.”

On Friday morning, when a hacker who stole customer information from Nate.com, one of Korea’s major Internet portal sites, had a credit card issued using the information, a Dong-A Ilbo reporter called the customer service center of a large credit card company and asked for the reissuance of an existing card, saying he had forgotten the password for the card.

The call center employee accepted the reissuance request by checking simple information printed on the credit card bill. Though the company has a last safety step of requiring the card owner to receive the card in person, certain credit card companies are directly delivering plastic to customers, allowing hackers to get other people’s credit cards reissued to them.

According to a study by the Financial Supervisory Service, credit card call center employees check identification just by randomly asking a caller three questions about information given by customers upon initial issuance. That is because credit card companies leave it up to the call center employees to verify customer identification without designating mandatory questions.

The financial watchdog said a credit card is responsible for illegal issuance and use of plastic unless customers are at fault for intentionally leaking their own passwords or failing to carefully protect them.

Credit card customer centers are advised to ensure that they ask the date of issuance of a personal identification card or bank account numbers to prevent fraudulent issuance of credit cards. Under this rule, credit card companies are strengthening issuance procedures for additional cards.

From Friday, Korea Exchange Bank, which recently had a credit card illegally issued, refused to issue plastic to anyone who failed to provide the correct passwords. Other card issuers also decided to call credit card companies to increase the number of questions to verify customer identification and check the date of issuance of the dates their passwords were issued.

“If you are antsy over secondary damage, you are advised to change your identification and passwords for Nate,” a source at the credit card company said. Another way is to ask a card company not to issue an additional credit card upon phone request to prevent a card from being issued without checking the password.

tnf@donga.com legman@donga.com