While high quality scanners, printers and low-cost personal computers (PCs) make it easier to forge cards, security must constantly look to more advanced methods to protect their companies, employees and customers. Layered security procedures built into card design offer unique opportunities to elevate security with minimal cost. Sometimes protecting a card’s integrity begins with the very ink being used to print the card. Color-shifting inks, like those used on the new $20 bill, can thwart color copying. Specialized inks only visible with infrared and black light readers provide an unseen layer of protection. Although not an ink, laser engraving can burn tamperproof, unique variables onto a card.
Ensuring the validity of a signature will often foil a card thief. By using tamper-evident signature panels such as a Pantograph multicolor pattern, or printing signature surfaces that degrade if physical or chemical tampering is attempted, the secure link between a cardholder and his signature can be ensured. Fingerprint-receptive surfaces can be added to further prevent card fraud.