No wonder there's so much fraud

I was talking to friend this evening over dinner at the new Azur Restaurant on Hastings seafront (incidentally a wonderful new eatery - click here to read the Hastings and St Leonards Observer article) and the conversation got around to credit card fraud. Her elderly mother went for lunch in a local pub where she'd been a regular for some forty years.

Despite the fact that she was ordering just two ploughmans lunches and a couple of glasses of wine, the bar staff asked for her credit card to start a tab. Unwilling to give out her details for such a paltry amount, she refused. Several times. And then offered to pre-pay for her lunch, which the staff accepted.

After lunch, the manager came over to apologise for any misunderstanding, and to give this lady her credit card back on a plate.

"You see" said my friend's mother "This is precisely why I didn't want to give you my card. Even though I wouldn't give you my card, you're quite prepared to hand me someone else's. I never actually handed you mine!"

How many times must that happen? No wonder there's so much fraud...