Barclays intros anti-fraud device

A device to help prevent fraudulent transactions taking place when banking online has been introduced by Barclays.

The bank is sending out free handheld chip and PIN card readers to online banking customers and plans to have shipped half a million units by the end of the year.

Though it won't be necessary for just checking your balance, the PINsentry is designed to work with your debit card and you will enter your PIN to authenticate your identity and for certain transactions.

Barnaby Davis, director for electronic banking, said: “Barclays is constantly working to help protect customers and their money and that is why we have invested in this system. PINsentry is the next generation of fraud prevention technology and Barclays is proud to be the first organisation in the UK to roll it out to its customers.

The PINsentry is intended to do away with the need for passcodes and memorable words when logging in to your account and is the latest move from Barclays to protect its customers, after offering free anti-virus software and an SMS text message confirmation system last year.

Security company Trend Micro welcomed the introduction of the PINsentry.

"Consumer confidence in online transactions and online banking has been waning and better safeguards, such as biometrics or smartcards needs to be considered by other banks.

"We are excited to see a major organisation like Barclays taking more responsibility and providing a safer environment for their customers to do banking," said Raimund Genes of Trend Micro.

http://www.barclays.co.uk/online/

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