Shops tackle card fraud

Card fraud has risen by 30%

Retailers in West Yorkshire are pioneering a new scheme to help tackle credit card fraud that latest figures suggest costs consumers over £400m per year.

Shops in Otley have teamed up with police to introduce thumbprint signatures for all card purchases.

Fraudulent transactions increased by 30% last year to total £411m nationwide.

Home Office estimates say that figure could rise to £600m by 2005.

Risk

People paying by plastic in restaurants, bars and petrol stations are particularly at risk of having their card cloned.

Police have targeted filling station attendants to help them in a "skimming crackdown".

Credit Card fraud, particularly where cards are copied or cloned, is on the increase

Superintendent Francis Habgood

A minimum £500 reward is being offered to them for reporting card counterfeiters.

Card copiers are often linked to organised crime and more serious offences such as drug trafficking.

Inkless pad

The Home Office hopes the two-year thumbprint scheme being piloted in Otley will prove to be another solution in the fight against credit card fraud.

Customers supply their thumbprint on the back of a cheque or credit card slip using an inkless, gel-based pad.

Their print stays with the slip and is passed on to police if the payment is revealed as fraudulent.

Superintendent Francis Habgood, Weetwood Divisional Commander, said: "Cheque and credit card fraud crime costs millions of pounds and often hits smaller businesses hardest. Thumbprint is an easy, inexpensive yet effective way of stopping it.

"Credit card fraud, particularly where cards are copied or cloned, is on the increase.

"One of the most important messages is that Thumbprint is about deterring crime in the first place."

New pin number-activated cards will be introduced nationally by 2004, but signature-based transactions will not be phased out completely until at least 2005.