Not so much an article, more a cautionary note.

Went Christmas (oops, sorry - I mean "Wintermas," got to be P.C. - shopping today. Every shop I went in the chip and pin system was not running. Now I recall earlier this year getting lots of mail from my bank about how great the chip and pin system was and yet, far from having teething probles like any other baby, it seems to have been born without a head.
Or......could it be....... no, of course not, those nice people at the banks can be trusted can't they......but just imagine if they were a buch of crooks, would it be possible thay lied to us about the security advantages of chip and pin, maybe the system actually makes fraud easier. So maybe the systems are down because it is the only way of stopping people getting ripped off this Christmas. But of course I'm a long standing hater of Christmas, Banks, Government and Blue Peter (just thought I would throw that in.) Maybe I am getting paranoid. Perhaps my travails in the shopping centre were just a multiple case of "Computer says noooo." (That last line is for Little Britain fans.)

SERIOUSLY: Chip and pin does make more difficult the kind of fraud that occous when criminals "skim" you card and use the details to order goods by phone but of course with no visual check, it helps enormously those fraudsters you can get your card details and your pin number (easier than you think) and just wander into shops and buy stuff.