Despite being trumpeted as a solution to credit card fraud, Chip and PIN is actually making fraudulent behaviour easier, an academic study warns.
According to researchers at the University of East Anglia, fraudsters have adapted their techniques to get hold of credit and debit card PIN numbers.
The study found that criminals look over a customer's shoulder as they type their number into a Chip and PIN keypad and then steal the card after the shopper leaves the store.
The problem is fuelled, the report said, by shop staff who have become less vigilant about fraud because of the introduction of the new technology with many looking away when a customer enters their PIN after being told to do so by bosses.
Emily Finch, one of the researchers who took part in the study, and a male colleague visited several stores and found it easy to obtain PIN numbers by peering over shoppers' shoulders. They were also able to use each other's cards without being challenged by shop staff.
Finch said rather than technology-based security systems providing the solution to identity fraud, the answer lies in 'good old fashioned human vigilance'.
"Our research has shown that fraudsters are tenacious, merely adapting their strategies to circumvent new security measures rather than desisting from fraudulent behaviour," she said.
"Studying the way that individuals disclose sensitive information would be far more valuable in preventing identity fraud than the evolution of technologically advanced but ultimately fallible measures to prevent the misuse of personal information that has been obtained."
Finch also found many criminals are able to gather personal information from victims via publicly available databases and by searching through rubbish bins.
