Anyone with a credit card will be chilled by the news of a £50,000 fraud revealed at an Oxfordshire petrol station yesterday.

Counterfeiters simply copied the details off their customers' cards using a special machine and sold the information on to fraudsters, before handing the cards back to the unsuspecting victims.

They then replicated the information on to new cards and raked up individual bills of anything between £150 and £6,000, as far away as the US and the West Indies.

Short of going through your bank and credit card statements with a fine toothcomb and keeping your cards within sight at all times, there is very little the general public can do to stop this new crime trend, which is why 32 customers at Kidlington's Save garage fell victims.

Pc Mark Reeve mans Thames Valley Police's checking credit fraud office for Oxford and Cowley, and says this type of crime is more common in Oxford than the rest of the country because of the large influx of tourists and students.

Most commonly targeted are customers in retail outlets, garages and supermarkets, and Pc Reeve reminds residents and visitors to take better care of their cards, never to give out their pin number and to be careful when divulging account details.

But don't despair, work is going on behind the scenes to counter the fraudsters and the banks are introducing a new microchip card to put an end to 'skimming' as it is known in the industry. Around 13 million Smart cards already exist but will not be commonplace until the end of 2002.

In the short term, the Fraud International Bureau is a central point for all banks in the UK and is working to catch the criminals involved. Any reports of fraud are stored on a central computer so that the restaurant or petrol station involved can be detected.

Melanie Hubbard, spokesman for Card Watch, the UK banking industry's fraud prevention programme, says: "When alerted to a potential fraud site, the police study the staff rosters to work out who was working at the time of the fraud. The culprits are usually paid a set fee for every card they copy."

She adds that 'skimming' cost the banks £81m last year alone, an increase of 83 per cent on the previous year, and accounts for the largest chunk of fraud.

"It is certainly the most popular method of counterfeit fraud and is usually linked to organised crime with international links," she says.

"It most often occurs at bars, restaurants or petrol stations when an employee passes cards through a machine, often clipped on to their belts, about the size of a cigarette packet.

"It only takes a few seconds to swipe all the information from the magnetic strip. It is then put on to a computer and sold to the criminal who can then use them anywhere in the world or sell them on.

"I know it's hard to keep an eye on your card all the time, so it's vital that people check their bank statements very carefully," she advises.

She adds that this sort of fraud is not just restricted to credit cards but all charge cards.

"The banking code has been changed recently so that customers are not liable for 'skimming' or Internet counterfeit credit card fraud, as long as the customer still has their card, but people should report any suspicions instantly to their banks who will investigate their claims immediately."

Fortunately customers caught up in 'skimming' are reimbursed in full by their banks unless they do not report a stolen card, in which case a maximum £50 charge is added.

And Pc Reeve adds a final warning to the would-be thieves: "There are sentences in place for the courts to use and there is a maximum jail term of 14 years for fraud, forgery or theft and handling."

First published: February 15, 2001