You can pay for goods or services with your credit card over the phone, online and by mail without having to put your credit card through a PIN enabled card reader, and these are called card-not -present (CNP) transactions.  Because you are not physically swiping your card in these kinds of transactions you are not protected by the secure chip and PIN method, which only allows payments to be processed if the unique PIN number is input, and this can leave your credit cards vulnerable to fraudulent crimes as payments can be processed based on card details alone (such as the number and security code on the back).  This means that if a thief steals your credit card, they can quickly and easily run up fraudulent charges on your account using CNP payment methods.
 
Credit card providers and banks are well aware of this problem and are tackling it by introducing new measures designed to provide additional security for CNP payments.  This includes the ‘Verified’ service that has now been introduced by Visa, which links your credit/debit Visa card to a secure online payment portal.  When you are asked to pay for something online using your Visa card, once you have input your credit card details you will be redirected automatically (regardless of what website you are using) to the Visa Verified portal (this helps with credit theft protection), and you will not be able to proceed with the payment until you have entered your unique password.  Services like Verified from Visa have proved very successful at reducing online fraud involving credit card payments, and more and more measures are being introduced every year to improve the security of CNP transactions.
 
You can help to reduce the risks of CNP fraud by ensuring that you only provide your credit card details over the phone and online to legitimate businesses, and if you have to send any details by post make sure you use a recorded delivery service to ensure it gets to the right person.

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