Keep your credit card in sight while holidaying abroad, as crooks abound, warns Claire Shoesmith

It is a scenario many people are familiar with. You have only been back from holiday two weeks and yet it already feels like you never went away. The work is piling up on your desk and the monotony of your daily grind is setting back in.

Just at the point when even the sight of your holiday snaps cannot cheer you up, the credit card bill finds its way to your letterbox, and you are faced with having to pay for the fun you can hardly remember.

In fact, there are a few things there you do not remember paying for at all. On closer examination, did you really spend that much?

There are two possible explanations. Either you did a few things you had not expected to and your holiday cost more than you originally budgeted, or someone else has been using your card.

Finding out which it is takes time and there are no short-cuts. You'll need to get out all the receipts from the card payments you made while you were away and check them off against your statement.

"I know this seems a little obsessive," says Jerry Penser, a lawyer specialising in card fraud, "but it is the only way of being sure. If you have let your card out of our sight even for a moment, the possibilities for criminal activity are vast."

Credit and debit card fraud is a common problem globally and last year cost Irish consumers €9.6 million.

While card skimming, when card details are taken fraudulently and then used to make purchases, can be a problem wherever you are, consumers are particularly vulnerable when they are on holiday, according to a spokeswoman for credit card company Mastercard.

In June, the latest period for which data are available, the hotspots for card fraud affecting Irish tourists were the UK, South Korea, Spain, the Ukraine and the US, according to another card issuer, Visa.

"The most important thing is not to let your card out of your sight when making a payment," says Jennifer Chamberlaine, marketing executive at the Irish Payment Service Organisation (Ipso).

"You should also check the amount on the bill before you sign and ensure you carefully check your statement when it comes through at the end of the month."

Ipso, which operates SafeCard, an online and telephone advice service for consumers, also recommends that holidaymakers do not to take all their cards with them on their travels, therefore reducing the financial risk should their valuables get stolen.

Another useful tip, according to Chamberlaine, is to get into the habit of carrying your card issuer's 24-hour emergency contact number with you at all times in case your card gets lost or stolenWhile this may seem like common sense, it is easy to drop your guard while on holiday, leaving yourself open to abuse.

In one Spanish town, several Irish holidaymakers recently fell victim to a fraudster posing as a police officer claiming he needed to "test" their card. Once they had innocently handed over their cards, the criminal copied the details by running the card through a skimmer, enabling him to use the information later to clear out the innocent victim's account.

Admittedly, this is an extreme example. Most cases of card fraud will be much less obvious and will often only come to light once the consumer has received his or her statement at the end of the month.

What is even more disturbing is that the fraudsters do not even have to see your actual card to replicate its details. They can take what they need from discarded receipts that you have left lying on the table after making your transaction or have crumpled up and thrown dismissively in the rubbish bin.

They can also take and re-use information they hear over the telephone, so if you have to read out your card details in a public place then make sure you are not being overheard.

The introduction of the chip and pin credit card system, where the cardholder inputs a personal security number into a card scanning machine to activate their payment instead of signing a printed receipt, reduces some of the risks of this sort of fraud because the pin number does not appear on the receipt in the same way the signature does, says Chamberlaine.

But, she adds, you should still be careful how you dispose of anything containing financial information.

If, having taken all the precautions mentioned above, something still does not look quite right with your statement, what should you do?

In many cases the bank or card issuer will have have spotted an unusual transaction already, either because of where it took place or because it was a particularly high amount. In these cases, they regularly contact customers to check whether the transaction is legitimate.

However, if there are several transactions from one location over a specific period of time, they are likely to assume you are travelling in that area and that it is you making the payments.

"If you see anything suspicious on your statement you should report it to your card issuer immediately," says Chamberlaine.

In most cases, provided the consumer can prove that they did not behave negligently with their card, the card issuer will investigate the claim to ensure it is legitimate and then refund the consumer. Some investigations may involve the police.

It is important to note that not all transactions will appear on your statement with the same name that featured on your receipt at the time of signing, as many small companies will trade as part of a larger holding organisation.

This is particularly common in small holiday resorts and so is something to bear in mind when checking your receipts against your statement.

While the card issuer bears the burden of the loss, if this loss were to become unsustainable, it is possible that the higher costs may start being passed onto the cardholders by way of higher fees and extra charges.

So, from the customer's point of view, the best policy is to keep your card in your sight at all times and make sure you check your statement thoroughly at the end of every month.