[comprev]

Reducing charge-backs in another reason Chip & PIN was promoted by the banks.

With a signature the merchant is responsible for fraud. They are supposed to check the buyers signature against the one written on the back of the credit/debit card or cheque book. If the signatures don't match the merchant should decline the sale.

With Chip & PIN - a code only the card owner should know - the responsibility has been shifted away from the seller over to the buyer. The banks always say "NEVER share your PIN code with anybody. It's for you only"

Claiming a charge-back is much harder if YOU are the one who authorised the transaction by entering a code only YOU should know.