The PIA reports that the President issued Executive Order No. 573, creating an Anti-Fraud Task Force composed of the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) and the Philippine National Police (PNP) to strengthen Republic Act 8484, or the “Access Device Regulation Act of 1998”.

The occurrence of credit card fraud is increasing and acquiring banks incur huge losses and suffer stunted credit card sales, ultimately threatening the survival of the credit card industry, including the negative repercussions in the domestic economy,” the President said in the order that she signed Wednesday.

She said credit card fraud was a “form of economic sabotage as it creates a bad image for the country in the global market” at a time when the government was moving to boost tourism.

The Credit Card Association of the Philippines (CCAP) earlier appealed to Malacañang to give more teeth to its laws against fraudsters using illegally obtained information from credit cards, obtained mostly through store or restaurant personnel.

Although credit card fraud is not as widespread in the Philippines as in other countries – constituting less than one percent of credit card transactions here – the CCAP said there was a need for safeguards because of the inadequate security features of most credit cards in the country.

Of course, credit card fraud is present in our country. In the cases I’ve handled, a SINGLE fraudulent transaction amounted to millions of pesos. This task force addresses the dilemma whether a credit card company, which oftentimes absorbs the loss, should spend more money in prosecuting alone – without the active participation of government agencies – a frudulent credit card transaction.