Failing to check shoppers’ credit cards could be adding to the growing problem of credit card fraud.
By Sarah Schwager and Callan Date
CASEY shoppers should be aware just how easily their credit cards could be forged.
An investigation by the News found most shop assistants at major supermarkets and petrol stations did not check for a signature if it was not provided.
Cranbourne resident Katherine Eastwood contacted the News after becoming fed up at stores not checking for her signature.
Ms Eastwood, who also works for the Commonwealth Bank, said she became enraged when she visited Ritchies Supermarket in Cranbourne last Friday and the transaction was approved before she had signed the receipt.
She said she was particularly annoyed as her husband’s credit card was stolen a year ago and used to buy hundreds of dollars of liquor and other items.
“I was dumbfounded. It just annoys me,” Ms Eastwood said. “It only takes two seconds to check a signature.”
The News visited five major stores in Berwick, Narre Warren and Hallam this week with only two passing the signature test.
Coles Express service station in Narre Warren, Caltex Safeway service station in Fountain Gate and Hallam’s Shell Service Station all failed to look at the signature on the credit card.
Coles Supermarket at Eden Rise in Berwick and Hungry Jack’s in Narre Warren fared better and asked to specifically see the signature.
An investigation in Cranbourne produced more alarming results, with only one out of six stores checking for signatures.
Ms Eastwood said it was not up to banks to have to check if their clients’ credit cards were being used fraudulently.
“We need to educate people and let them know how easy it is for frauds to use their cards,” she said.
“If these stores aren’t doing their job, anyone can use their card to purchase anything.”
In many countries, credit cards come with the holder’s photo digitally printed on it.
Another option that has been discussed is copying VicRoads’ method of printing the signature on the driver’s licence electronically, preventing it from being worn or scratched off.
Ms Eastwood said each year banks lost billions of dollars to credit card fraud.
“While the machinery would be extremely costly to provide such an option … in 12 months they would get their money back easily,” she said.
It would be up to the individual banks to purchase the equipment to provide digital photos or signatures on credit cards.
“You’ve got to allow some variance with a signature, but if there was a photo on the card you can’t fake that,” Ms Eastwood said.
She said at the Commonwealth Bank people often came in asking for their pins to be changed on their bankcards.
“If they can’t provide some other form of identification we will cut it up then and there,” Ms Eastwood said.
“We get a lot of angry clients but we say ‘we are protecting you’. You never know if someone’s just picked it up off the street.”
Ritchies Supermarket did not want to comment on the issue or the incident.
A Coles spokeswoman said operational procedures clearly state that customers must provide a signature for credit card transactions.
“All Coles Express team members receive regular training, which covers checking the credit cardholder’s signature when a transaction takes place in store,” she said.
