On 2 Feb, 18:10, "Simon Finnigan" wrote:
"Clifford Frisby" wrote in message

...

Anyway, they refused to take a signature in lieu of PIN, and I refused to
let them take the card for swiping.

This has been the situation in PC World, and a number of other shops, for
quite some time. *It`s never bothered me because I use a chip&signature
card.

When Chip-and-PIN first appeared, Sainsbury's used to do something
behind the scenes with the card and you entered the PIN on the pad. I
never saw whether they swiped the card or had a slave reader. It was
all too new to be suspicious of what was going on. Nowadays you insert
the card in the reader yourself. I think there was an intermediate
period where it was done either way according to the whim of the
cashier, phase of the moon, ...?

ISTR that there was a batch of card readers that had been got at at
the factory in China and sent off your details to cloners. Perhaps PC
World et al got hit by them and the two-part reader makes it more
difficult for the crooks.

Chris