Tesco’s drop a Pin
From 14th February, most shops and petrol stations will not accept signatures from customers who use a chip and pin credit card – with one major exception. Tesco’s are planning to continue to accept without pin numbers.
Tesco clients buying at their check-outs and petrol stations can spend up to £60, simply by swiping their debit and credit cards through an old fashioned card reader. Pins and signatures will not be required.
This means that the criminal fraternity can continue to use cloned or stolen cards up to and beyond the 14th February deadline. A spokesman for Tesco’s said “ we see low levels of fraud in these areas and if someone uses a card which has been notified as stolen, it will be rejected”.
Tesco’s have also said that chip and pin terminals are being introduced but it will be the end of 2006 before the process is completed across all their 800 self service stores and 370 petrol stations. It seems as if the 14th February deadline has caught Tesco’s on the hop.
A spokesperson from the Association for Payment Clearing Services said, ”There is no legal requirement for retailers to use chip and pin but if there are opportunities which criminals can exploit they are likely to do so. The vast majority of retailers now use chip and pin”.
Maybe so – the majority it seems, except for the UK’s biggest retailer!
