In the very first paper I wrote on ATM fraud, Why Cryptosystems Fail, the very first example I gave of a fraud came from the case R v Moon at Hastings Crown Court in February 1992. Mr Moon was a teller at the TSB who noticed that address changes weren’t audited. He found a customer with over £10,000 in her account, changed her address to his, issued a card and pin, and changed the address back. He looted her account and when she complained, she wasn’t believed.

It’s still happening, most recently to a customer of the Abbey. Bank insider issues extra card, steals money, customer blamed – after all, chip and pin is infallible, isn’t it? Expecting banks to keep decent logs might be too much; and I supppose it’s way too much to expect bank fraud staff to read the research literature on their subject.