No End to Card Fraud

Anyone using a chip and Pin card to withdraw money from cash machines will continue to be at risk from fraud, despite being forced to use Pins for all transactions from next February.

But Apacs has told revealed that the majority of ATMs will continue to read the magnetic stripe on the back of a card instead of the chip, meaning cardholders will still be open to fraud from cash machine 'skimming'.

The fraud typically works by con artists using a false front on a cash machine to clone a card's magnetic strip and recording details of the Pin by using a tiny camera. It has not been halted by chip and Pin technology because most ATMs still read the magnetic strip on the back of the card as an alternative to the chip, enabling cloned cards that just have the strip to be used around the country.

Fraud by skimming at cash machines grew by almost 85 per cent in the year to December 2004, according to Apacs figures, and was the fastest-growing form of fraud over the 18 months to June.