IT is the nightmare before Christmas. A criminal gang is targeting York cash machines, cloning debit cards and stealing hundreds of pounds out of people's accounts.

For the victims, this is the worst possible news. They have been cleaned out with little more than two weeks to the big day. The rest of us are urged to take precautions when using cash machines. With fake banknotes circulating, we are left wondering where to turn for financial safety.

It should not be down to the customers to evade card crime. What are the banks doing to protect us? We entrust them with our money, and they have a duty to keep it safe. With ATM fraud increasing by 81 per cent last year, to more than £74 million, they are clearly failing in that duty.

This is not the shadowy world of cyber-crime. For the scam to work, the gangs must fix a new fascia to a street cash machine. Later they have to return to remove it, and make their fraudulent withdrawals.

Why, then, are cash machines not fitted with anti-tampering devices and effective CCTV cameras? Why do the banks not fund regular security checks of their machines, day and night?

The answer is simple. Because they don't have to.

The banks might take a different attitude if they were forced to pay victims double the amount stolen from their accounts.

Then they might finally insist on security systems which would give the fraudsters a run for our money.

Updated: 11:09 Thursday, December 08, 2005