Debit and credit card users beware - new fronts have opened in the clone wars
The Mirror UK  By Tricia Phillips 25/03/2009

Maxine Skelton knows to her cost the pain of card cloning fraud – she’s been hit not once, not twice but THREE times. The rip-off’s a big earner for thieves, with cases doubling in the past two years to push dodgy bank transactions to a record £609million.

Maxine fell victim to one of the biggest scams around, a counterfeit card copied using stolen UK card details for use in countries yet to upgrade to chip and PIN.

“It was awful. I had two weeks of hell with no access to any cash in my account.

I had to use my credit card to live off. This type of thing really does mess up your life.” Maxine was able to prove she hadn’t spent the money and got her cash refunded.

“It has made me really careful now. I don’t let my cards out of my sight, I tear up all my receipts, I double-check every item on my statements and I’m wary at cashpoints. It’s worrying knowing strangers can steal from your account.”

Kerry D’Souza, a fraud expert at card protection company CPP, says: “Criminals like card-not-present crimes because they can do it without having to make face-to-face transactions.

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