I bumped into a Reuters article on card skimming & fraud in Japan. I would never have imagined this can happen in so-called civilized countries, but it appears Japanese banks are not obliged to compensate their customers for fraud. How stupid is that? But it gets better: this applies to skimming also – not only are you personally responsible for any losses if your card gets physically stolen, but apparently you’re also responsible for skimming fraud where you don’t necessarily even know your card data has been copied! How exactly is the general public supposed to be able to protect themselves from this? Here’s hoping they change this policy and do it quick.
