Banks in Singapore will soon introduce a new security measure that could help prevent credit card crooks going on an online shopping spree at your expense, says a Business Times report.

 

Over the next six months, both local and foreign banks with retail banking operations will introduce a new requirement called dynamic authentication for all credit card transactions over the Internet. This means consumers will have to go through the additional step of keying in one-time passwords before online purchases can be processed, says the report.

 

Banks now use a combination of hardware tokens and text messages to generate passwords for customers to bank online, but usage will soon be broadened to include card-not-present transactions such as Internet shopping. Web merchants typically require a user's credit card number, expiry date and CVV (card verification value) to complete a Web purchase.

 

Besides the use of passwords for online purchases, other measures such as transaction alerts and mandatory activation of new and replacement credit cards will be introduced later this year, the report says. By the end of 2011, more secure microchip-based credit cards will replace all magnetic-strip cards now in circulation.