Two more credit card scams to be aware of

According to Kevin Whitehead of Oban Cycles, a couple called Bell from Kilmarnock in Scotland are credit card rip-off merchants. Whitehead claims the Bell’s are scoring kit from bike shops across the UK.

"So far they have netted at least £15 000 of goods, all mail order," said Whitehead.

"They rang me and said they wanted a bike for their son on next day delivery. I actually handed it to them in person (a rep from Bob Elliott was there too). They later denied getting it. I lost £500. I know of other bike shops who’ve lost thousands."

And beware of shoppers who present cards which cannot be read by your electronic card reader. Punching in the numbers is the usual way round this but canny fraudsters have cottoned on to the fact that payments made this way are not verified in the same way as cards being electronically read. Fraudsters can buy goods with their tampered with cards but then later dispute the purchases.