Credit card scam targets Christmas shoppers

UNWITTING shoppers could be funding organised crime and even terrorism this Christmas by allowing their bank card details to fall into the wrong hands.

Banks and retailers are expecting to have to pick up a tab of up to €12 million for fraud losses involving cash cards, credit cards and Laser transactions this year.

But they are also bracing themselves for an upsurge in card scams operated from overseas in the coming months as criminals thwarted by new high-security cards in Britain turn their attentions to Ireland where the new card technology has yet to be introduced.

Some card fraud culprits are small-time operators or once-off opportunists but IPSO, the Irish Payment Services Organisation, warned yesterday that most of the perpetrators were big-time criminal gangs and terrorist groups.

The Christmas shopping spree is the most lucrative time of year for them with almost three million cash withdrawals expected from ATM machines this week alone and millions more debit and credit card transactions taking place.

Una Dillon of IPSO said the spending splurge was expected to hit €9 billion countrywide, with an increased number of purchases being paid for with plastic.

“In December 2002, 6.4 million transactions were carried out on Laser cards alone, valued at €415 million. That was a 33% increase compared to the same period in 2001. We expect a further increase this month and we’re asking people to increase their vigilance accordingly.”

Ms Dillon said criminal gangs deliberately targeted low-paid workers in the retail and restaurant businesses with a going rate of €50 for each credit card “skimmed”, ie details stolen, with more on offer for cards with higher credit limits.

IPSO has launched the SafeCard campaign and website, www.safecard.ie, aimed at helping cardholders and businesses beat the fraudsters whose takings rose from just under €4 million in 2000 to €9 million last year.

The campaign has the backing of the Card Fraud Forum whose members include the main banks, the Garda National Bureau of Fraud Investigation and the Police Service of Northern Ireland.

The Forum is advising that changes in the design of bank cards issued in Britain, which now incorporate an identity chip and require use of a personal identity or PIN number, have made it harder for criminals to extract information from cards and make counterfeit copies with the result that they may move operations here.