Shoppers were warned today about a major security fear over chip and Pin machines.
Experts at Cambridge University say they have come up with a virtually foolproof way of stealing a consumer's details.
They believe fraudsters could easily replicate their method and have posted a video on the internet as a warning.
The banking industry admitted today that the development is a worrying one and say they have got their own scientists working on ways of foiling the criminals.
The Cambridge team reprogrammed a hand-held chip and Pin machine to allow them access to card details and Pins. Researchers say it would be simple to swap their rigged machine for one in a store.
Last year Shell suspended chip-and-pin payments in 600 UK petrol stations after more than £1m was stolen from customers' accounts.
APACS, the payments organisation representing high street banks, said the Cambridge breakthrough could be a threat.
'People could, in theory, use this to steal account details from cards,' said Sandra Quinn of APACS. 'Our experts are in discussion with the manufacturers of terminals to see what can be done. Essentially what these people have done is replace the innards of a chip and Pin machine.
'However, we would say that this has only been seen in a laboratory so far. People would not be able to create counterfeit chip and Pin cards, but they could use this information abroad to make purchases.'
Student Saar Drimer said they took the chassis of a real terminal and replaced most of the internal electronics, allowing them access to the screen, keypad and card-reader. To show it was under their control they made it play a computer game.
They were able to reprogramme the machine in their spare time in four weeks, saying it was 'relatively easy'.
Figures show that despite the potential problems, card fraud has declined since chip and pin was introduced. In the six months to last June, total card fraud fell by five per cent to £209.3m.
Cambridge scientists showed how criminals could get round chip and Pin technology by changing the terminal hardware to create a machine that could play a computer game.
Source: Mark Prigg, Evening Standard
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