How ID thieves are outsmarting smart cards

Millions of credit cards have been converted to so-called “smart cards” -- credit cards embedded with computer chips -- over the past year in an effort to cut down on fraud. But it turns out that crooks just got smarter too, pushing identity theft to record-breaking levels. “We saw criminals diversifying the way they commit crimes,” said Al Pascual, senior vice president and head of fraud and security at Javelin Strategy & Research, which released its annual identity theft survey today. Instead of cutting credit card fraud, new technology simply changed the type of fraud committed, Pascual added.