Credit card fraud: ‘How could scammers use it before I did?’

Samuel Gibbs was surprised when his details were used to pay for a stranger's takeaway. It is just one of a flood of guess attacks'

I am no stranger to credit card fraud: in the past I have had my card cloned and had the details stolen from a hack on a retailer. But I thought a card I had never used would be safe from the threat of crime. I was wrong.

Even if you lock your credit card in a safe the moment it arrives, you can still fall victim to charges made by criminals. But how can criminals steal your card details if you've never even used them?