A number of restaurants and petrol stations in Hertfordshire are being investigated by police in a bid to crackdown on the growing number of individuals and outlets involved in "skimming" or credit card cloning.

On Tuesday, June 25, two petrol stations the Esso garage near Sheepcote Lane in Garston and the TotalFinaElf service station in Colney Heath were searched by police, although both searches did not yield any results.

"Skimming" is when data is taken from the magnetic strip of a credit or debit card and copied onto another card without the original card owner's knowledge.

It usually occurs when a cardholder hands over their card to make a payment or purchase goods and the card is secretly copied before being processed in the normal way and handed back to the customer.

Detective Sergeant George Smith of the Cheque and Credit Card Fraud Unit from Hertfordshire Constabulary said: "Most often, the cardholder does not realise that this has happened until they check their statement weeks later and see a payment has been made that has not been authorised by them.

"The offenders of this crime use a card reader device called a skimmer which copies details from the card's magnetic strip. The cards are skimmed out of sight of the cardholder.

"This data is then copied onto another card or is put onto a counterfeit card which is made to loook like a real credit or debit card."

The police said that in Watford and throughout the county there were several sites where there was evidence of skimming that had taken place on several occasions.

June 27, 2002 16:30