Bring back Bankcard and arrest fraud

A domestic bank credit card along the lines of the closed Bankcard scheme would help curtail credit card fraud in Australia, says Brian Hay, the chief of the fraud squad for Queensland Police.

Speaking at a national identity theft and high-tech crime symposium on the Gold Coast yesterday, Hay said credit card fraud was virtually inevitable, according to an AAP report.

"If you have a plastic card, it's not a matter of if you'll be compromised but when," Hay said.

Hay said a credit card that could only be used in Australia "could not come soon enough". He has raised the idea with one major bank.

"We know that most of the offending is by overseas criminals who compromise our cards and then exploit them overseas," he said.

"If we had an Australia-only credit card they couldn't use it, or they would have to sell it to another crook in Australia, which means that we could come after them in a far more effective manner.

"The reality is if the crooks knew that if they compromised Australian credit cards those cards could not be used outside our geographic borders it would make them less desirable."