City's credit card fraud among worst in country

FRAUDSTERS are plundering more bank accounts in Cambridge than in almost any other part of the country, a survey has revealed.

According to the poll, which questioned 5,000 people across the country, almost one in three city residents have been the victim of credit and debit card fraud.

A total of 28.5 per cent of participants from Cambridge claimed to have had cash stolen from their bank accounts, leaving the city the third-worst spot in the UK.

Only Birmingham, which topped the poll with almost 35 per cent claiming to have been targeted by fraudsters, and Plymouth, with 30 per cent, fared worse.

The survey was carried out by CPP, a life assistance service, and found Cambridge residents were most likely to have bank details stolen in shops or garages, while most incidents in Birmingham were theft from the post or over the internet.

It is one year since chip and pin card security was introduced in Britain, and this week an investigation by Cambridge University researchers broadcast on the BBC Watchdog programme revealed card details could still be stolen while shoppers made purchases.

The team demonstrated how cards could be "hijacked" by doctored payment machines, with details sent wirelessly to accomplices, and purchases then made using a fake card with those account details.

Zoe Manton, head of card protection for CPP, said: "Card fraud is a nasty business and still very common, despite the successful introduction of chip and pin.

"Although chip and pin makes life more difficult for thieves in shops, they can still use stolen cards over the internet, abroad or on the telephone. In the first six months of 2006, card fraud cost the industry £209.3 million.

"And in 2007, we expect this figure to increase slightly, driven by fraudsters using stolen UK cards abroad where chip and pin is not yet up and running, and online banking fraud."

The full extent of the problem of card fraud in Cambridge was revealed last month when residents were hit by a flood of cases, losing thousands of pounds between them.

In one spate of incidents, five villagers in Little Abington had their cards cloned in quick succession, including Karen Douglas, of London Road, her husband, mother and two neighbours, who were all targeted in a single month.

Bottisham resident Chrissy Evans had £1,300 stolen from her account, including her nineyear- old son's disability living allowance.

She said: "It seems to be such a big problem in Cambridge at the moment, and we seem to be stuck between a rock and a hard place."

Data Fraud Cost Could be Passed onto Retailers

Massachusetts lawmakers are about to consider a bill that would require retailers to pay for losses when hackers and thieves breach their security systems to steal consumers' credit card and other financial information, the Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday.

Now, banks usually get stuck with credit-card fraud losses, which last year totaled more than $2 billion, the paper said.

If passed, the Massachusetts bill, the first of its kind, would make any company - be it a retailer, bank or data processor - financially liable if it's the operator of the system that is hacked, the paper said. The bill does not cover other types of credit card fraud, such as those resulting from a lost or stolen card, it said.

The Massachusetts bill, sponsored by Rep. Michael Costello, would mandate that companies whose security systems are breached assume full responsibility for any fraud-related losses, costs associated with the canceling and reissuing of cards, and in cases of identity theft, the freezing of accounts and credit information, the paper said.

The bill would apply to any company doing business in Massachusetts, regardless of where it is based, the paper said.