One of the aspects that has changed over recent years is the detail shown on the credit card docket, he said.

'Going back some years, basically the full [credit card] number was printed [on the credit card chit]. That is now changed and the full number is no longer shown. That was quite a significant step in terms of security,' he said.

The information retailers might store, for balancing their accounts, no longer has the details of the customer's account on it, he said. However, he can't guarantee that all retailers in New Zealand have changed their systems. Albertson recommended Computerworld talk to ETSL (Electronic Transaction Services Limited) for more information, but ETSL was not immediately available for a comment.

The international EMV-standard (Europay, Mastercard, Visa) chip cards are to be fully introduced in New Zealand by January 2008. In Europe, the move to chip cards happened because of the fraud issue, Jamieson said. But in New Zealand, fraud is not an issue.

According to Visa's research, fraud in New Zealand and Australia is at an all-time low. Only 0.03 percent of Visa sales are lost through fraud, compared to a world average, of 0.07 percent. Online fraud in New Zealand and Australia has halved in the last five years, mainly thanks to investments that banks and financial institutions have made in advanced technology to prevent fraud, Jamieson said.