Card fraud is now big business. The victim may be in New Zealand; an offender may well be in Russia, Germany or Taiwan."Cash, they told us, was old hat. Paper money was an anachronism from another era, an idea whose time had passed.
New Zealand led the world in electronic banking: From 1979, banks began equipping us all with small, robust pieces of plastic that we believed would allow us to travel lighter, purchase whatever we wanted from afar, and laugh in the faces of thieves.
It is hard to know the full extent of credit card fraud, because the banks are loath to disclose numbers lest it undermine public confidence in their security processes. The number of convictions has diminished over the past few years, but experts say that is simply because the fraudsters are getting smarter at covering their tracks, and are sometimes further removed from their crime. The victim may be in New Zealand; an offender may well be in Russia, Germany or Taiwan.
Despite the ongoing problems with credit and debit card fraud, New Zealand banks and retailers have actually taken a step or two backwards in card security.
We reveal today (p12-13) that banks including New Zealand's biggest, ANZ, are still mailing or couriering out pre-activated credit cards - an irresistible temptation to light-fingered mailbox surfers. This is despite an assurance from ANZ, after a spate of mailbox thefts five years ago, that it would stop sending out pre-activated smart card.
The bank indicated at the time that it was a toss-up between customer convenience ("avoiding the need to visit a branch to activate the card") and security. Customer research, ANZ said, had shown customers wanted the security - so why the subsequent u-turn?
ANZ won't say: "Our security team has asked that we not discuss our activation processes and we have to respect that," a spokesman said yesterday. "The person who committed this fraud is the bad guy. We're all victims here."
Adding to the trouble, banks and retailers have worked together to allow shoppers to make small card purchases without the "inconvenience" of having to enter their PIN or scrawl a signature. If, for instance, you buy a meal from one of the McDonald's restaurants, all you have to do is swipe your card and pick up your tray of burgers and fries. No PIN, no signature, no hassle - and no safeguards.
When signatures are required, anecdotal evidence suggests retail assistants and supermarket checkout operators take only the most cursory glance at the authorised signature on the back of the card, to check that the shopper is indeed the cardholder. It's almost seen as rude to check the signature, as if it might call the integrity of the customer into question.
The primary responsibility, though, must still fall on individuals to protect themselves from being ripped off. Obviously, keep your card safe; keep your PIN safe; take care using Eftpos terminals and ATMs; and take special care to make online purchases only through trusted secure payment providers.
The first thing any person should notice is the price point – the HP Slate 7 sells for $169, which might make it a winner in itself to people who are looking for a relatively cheap tablet, although a $30 difference isn’t a whole lot when it comes to pricing when compared to the Nexus 7 which starts at $199. Also, in regards to a lower price point you have to expect compromises when it comes to features in the device. I will say overall the tablet has some impressive features that the Nexus 7 doesn’t, but these features might not necessarily be appealing to everybody, especially considering the specs are probably the biggest compromise of them all.
Both the Slate 7 and the Nexus 7 are pretty self-explanatory regarding the size of the device – they're 7-inch tablets. The Slate 7 has a resolution of 1024 x 600, which is lower than the Nexus 7’s 1280 x 800. In layman's terms, the Nexus 7 is considered an HD device while the Slate 7 is not, which is something many people might take into consideration.
The next thing we’ll look at is the material the housing is made out of on both devices. The overall housing design of the Slate 7 could be appealing to those who are more interested in a device made of material other than plastic, seeing as HP decided to go with metal siding and matte back as oppose to the Nexus 7’s plastic and texturized housing. However, despite the material difference in the Slate 7 and the Nexus 7 there isn’t a whole lot of difference in weight.
Aside from the matte finish on the back of the Slate 7, you’ll also notice two more differences between it and the Nexus 7: First, it features a rear-facing camera - something that not all tablets take advantage of. The rear-facing camera on the Slate 7 is a 3-megapixel shooter. While it’s not quite up to par with tablets like the Apple iPad Mini or the Samsung Galaxy Note 8.0, which both feature 5-megapixel shooters, it’s still nothing to sneeze at considering the Nexus 7 doesn’t feature a rear-facing camera at all. The second thing you will notice is that it has the Beats Audio logo on the bottom, which seemed to be something primarily seen in HTC devices up until now.
When it comes to memory the Slate 7 only comes in an 8 GB variant, but fortunately HP has also supplied the tablet with an external SD card slot that can hold up to 32 GB of expandable memory. This is another bonus that the Slate 7 has over the Nexus 7 (considering the 32GB Nexus 7 costs $299) but still may not be enough to make up for what all the Nexus 7 entails for just $30 more.
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