jno...yes I have heard of that one before. Its easy to see how anybody would be duped as its so blo0dy clever !
To be honest, I hardly ever use my charge card at all, apart from perhaps Tesco and its petrol station. I ripped up my credit card years ago, so I can't be scammed there. Also if you use your charge card, any fraud is limited by the amount of money that its is your bank. As there is never very much in mine, even if someone does clone me, they can't steal very much !
People have become very complacent about plastic. You see people use a card to spend less that £5 all the time. It surely easier to just carry a few quid around with you than keep using a card for such trivial amounts.
Another thing that has changed over the years is how comfortable some people seem to be with using credit cards, and therefore getting into debt. My nieces think nothing of spending £100 or more on clothes that they don't really need, and use a card to pay for it. If you notice, especially in clothes shops, that people rarely use cash any more.
When credit cards first came out, in the the early 70's, Access sent out millions of cards, seemingly at random, to addresses all over Britain, just to recruit people into getting into debt. My old Mum tried to use one in the local Co-op and couldn't understand why the staff looked at her as if she was mad !