A recent investigation conducted by BBC reporters has uncovered that US credit card fraudsters are targeting UK supermarkets’ self-service systems as a means to exploit stolen credit and debit card numbers already in their possession. The BBC reporters enlisted the help of a series of computer security experts and accessed an illicit card fraud website where various cyber-criminals were enquiring as to the security capabilities of the self-service systems of British supermarkets such as Asda or Tesco.

The self-service systems are a draw to fraudsters because they do not require contact with a supermarket’s staff and also because they still use the swipe and sign technology.  As a result, criminals revealed their plans to use these systems and cloned US credit and debit cards either to get cash or to make expensive purchases (such as electronics).

UK supermarket representatives however argue that while self-service payment systems do not use the British chip-and-PIN authentication method, they do require that the issuing bank authorize the acceptance of a signature. The problem is that if the card in question has not been reported as cloned, transactions will go through. Experts estimate that in this way, criminals could get away with as much as GBP 8,000 every day using cloned US credit and debit cards.