Card Tricks

There has been a lot of concern in my area about credit-card fraud, with cards being 'skimmed' for their details and the PIN noted by corrupt retail staff - in this case mostly in filling stations. I have dealt with a young man of 20 who was skimming in a Sainsbury's checkout. A trawl of the databases led to his being identified as the culprit. He was only a small part of the gang of course, but his activities alone were, we were told, responsible for over half a million pounds' worth of fraud. One of our court clerks had his bank account emptied a couple of weeks ago, and my own son's card was misused last week. Many people are sloppy about card security (probably because losses fall to the bank) and I have seen customers in my local pub call their PIN number across a crowded bar to save the trouble of walking to the machine. If losses continue to accelerate at this rate the banks are going to need some new technology and some tighter procedures.