The Prevention of Plastic and Cheque Fraud: a Briefing Paper

Inevitably, there is a tension between the provision of services in a market society and the management of crime risks in both public and private sectors. As central media of exchange in global networks, credit, debit and charge cards can never avoid the risk of crime entirely: the primary goals of corporations are profit maximisation rather than maximum crime reduction. There will always be some conflicts of interest between the key private sector groups – card issuers, consumers (and individual crime victims), merchant service providers, and retailers – and between individual firms within those sectors. However, the objectives of this paper are to summarise