Banks should strengthen security

A waitress in Zhuhai city, Guangdong province, has been arrested, reportedly for using fake bank cards to withdraw money from other people's accounts or swiping their cards to pay a bill. She reportedly used a small device to record clients' bank account details when they paid their bills. Such illegal acts should be a warning to banks to improve their anti-forgery technology to protect their customers, says an article in Xi'an Evening News. Excerpts:

Reports say that it takes only 30 seconds to fake a bank card. But it's not the fraud committed using a small device but the outdated anti-forgery technology of banks that is shocking.

It costs less than 10,000 yuan ($1,575) for a person to buy a set of devices that can copy details of other people's bank cards without even taking their cards away.

The Zhuhai case is not the only one of its kind. Similar cases have been reported from other places. The good news, however, is that the People's Bank of China has announced when the financial IC cards will be issued and the Big Four Banks and the other commercial banks have been issuing new financial IC cards since June.

Furthermore, PBOC regulations say all bank cards in developed areas and important industrial sectors should be changed to financial IC cards before 2015.

The upgrade of cards is taking a long time because changing of core technology is a costly affair. For example, it costs two-three yuan to make a magnetic card but it takes 20-30 yuan to make a chip card. Add to that the cost of changing all ATMs and POS systems to be compatible with chip cards and you have a huge expenditure budget.

Despite everything, the frauds should be a warning to banks to accelerate the process of upgrading their cards to save their consumers from being cheated.

Don't laugh at others' misery

The affair between a female professor, surnamed Shi, and her doctoral student surnamed Zou at Xiamen University, Fujian province, has drawn a lot of public attention, especially after Shi filed a lawsuit against people and websites trying to malign her reputation. Many people may find the affair to be out of the ordinary, but they have no right to use the Internet to brand it "outrageous" or "abnormal", says an article in Procuratorial Daily. Excerpts:

The Shi-Zou affair may have soured, but that doesn't mean netizens can pass dirty comments on them. If Shi is right and Zou indeed made their affair public to extract "revenge", she could file a lawsuit to get things straight.

The level of tolerance and understanding in a society is a measure of its social progress. In this respect, Chen Kaige's latest film, Caught in the Web, tells the story of a society with a low tolerance level and distorted public mentality, and unscrupulous reporters, which drives a young girl to death.

Chen's film should be a reminder to people, especially netizens, that they have no right to derive pleasure at the expense of others.

(China Daily 09/04/2012 page9)