Crooks opting for euros since the pounds have dried up

Criminals are withdrawing money from cash machines abroad following the success of chip and pin at cutting fraud in the UK, according to Lloyds TSB.

"Lloyds TSB has noticed a rise in fraud overseas and one of the most obvious reasons is the success of chip and pin over here," said a spokesman for the bank.

"It is obviously not possible to correlate the two exactly, but there is a rise overseas and it's no coincidence."

Lloyds TSB said that, although fraud has fallen in the UK, criminals are not going to give up and will simply look for other ways to defraud UK banking customers.

While the company suggested that organised crime represents part of the rise in the overseas fraud, it is closely monitoring all transactions whether they were carried out abroad or in the UK.

"Any strange patterns which might indicate that fraud is occurring, whatever that fraud might be, will be picked up," said the spokesman.