Scheme to cut credit card fraud 'a success

A new scheme to cut credit card fraud has had a "very favourable" response with the public and nearly three-quarters of people are now willing to adopt it nationwide, a survey suggested today.

The Chip and PIN trial has been running in Northampton and the surrounding area for six weeks and currently involves 600 retailers, including many high street names. In the trial, the traditional card-and-signature method of payment was replaced with a microchipped card and a four-digit personal identification number (PIN). Organisers hope it will help reduce credit card fraud, which netted fraudsters in the UK more than ?420m in the last 12 months alone.

Research released today suggests attitudes to the old method of payment have changed, with 78% of the 1,332 respondents to the survey stating that it would be very or fairly easy to forge a person's signature. Seventy per cent said they believed the new system of using the four-digit codes would be more secure.

Chip and PIN spokeswoman Sandra Quinn was delighted with the results of the survey. "This is great news," she said. "The UK's shoppers are showing that they're more than ready to ditch signing and switch to using a PIN. They obviously think it's going to be a much better system. And that's very bad news for the criminals out there who have really targeted people's cards over the last few years."

181,500 people in and around the Northampton area have so far been issued with the new-style credit card and 30,000 transactions have been made since last month. Some 139 cash machines have also been upgraded to accept the new technology.

Retailers involved in the scheme include Marks & Spencer, ASDA, Safeway, Tie Rack, Vodafone and Scottish & Newcastle Retail pubs.

The scheme, which has the backing of the British Retail Consortium and the Association for Payment Clearing Services (APACS), will eventually see more than 40 million UK consumers using the system by 2005. By that date almost all credit and debit card transactions will be verified using the PIN code system, which will cost up to ?1.1bn to set up.

The massive programme will see more than 850,000 PIN terminals installed, 122 million cards issued and 40,000 cash machines upgraded.