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if the man (umm.. person!) was up for carrying a backpack with a card wired to it down his sleeve, or otherwise concealed on his person................a real gift for 'stop and search'

I agree that reliable fraud stats are hard to come by - since 2004 the European ATM Security Team (EAST) has been reporting at a European level on ATM related fraud and losses (including cross-border). 

An extract from their press release on a report published in October 2009 and covering January to June 2009 states (when compared to the period July to December 2008):  "....While card skimming incidents are down by 19% (from 5,693 to 4,629 incidents)........Losses due to card skimming are down by 30% (from €222 million to €156 million)........This indicates that the EMV rollout at ATMs in Europe (now 92% complete) is helping to reduce skimming losses, and also that fraud counter-measures, fraud monitoring capabilities and fraud detection are improving." 

As over 95% of Europe's nearly 400,000 ATMs are now EMV compliant, the pattern of cross-border losses has shifted considerably over the past 3 years from primarily in Europe to primarily outside of Europe.  A report covering the full year 2009 is likely to be published by EAST in late March/early April. 

for a related debate see https://www.finextra.com/blogs/fullblog.aspx?blogid=3581

Thanks for the feedback Dave.  Sounds like the Northern Bank Fivers are right at the end of their lifecycle - assuming they are the ones produced in 1999/2000.  Polymer banknotes can have a lifecycle of up to 8 years, while the average lifecycle of a paper banknote is just 2 years.........................

Marite

I like the possible solution you mentioned:

"Another solution which a group of european banks admitted is the most efficient method to deflect the increase of cross-border fraud (as well as CNP fraud) is to enable the cardholder to activate or deactivate their card for out-of-country use and CNP use. This way, even if the cards get skimmed, the clone cards are rejected. Even if a carder gets the correct card number with cvv/exp date, the fraudster will not be able to use the card details in a CNP transaction."  

Does anyone know if there is a suggested practical or favoured approach to this?  How would the cardholder do this?  By telephone, by SMS, by Internet? Has anything been tested?