Most substantive fraud cases involve schemes centered on Visa, MasterCard, or both. Law enforcement authorities repeatedly encounter certain ethnic groups, particularly Asian and Nigerian, and organizations involved in multilevel bank card fraud operations. Although current bank card fraud operations are numerous and varied, three types of schemes account for the majority of the industry's losses by taking advantage of dated technology, customer negligence and laws peculiar to the industry: (1) mail/credit bureau theft: an individual or organization illegally obtains legitimate bank cards or account numbers and uses them to purchase merchandise; (2) advance payment schemes: person or group makes advance payment against a stolen or counterfeit card, building up a cash credit against which to draw before the payment check clears; and (3) counterfeiting credit cards. The article discusses technological deterrents to credit card fraud, including holograms and magnetic strip coding; law enforcement efforts and the future of bank cards. Notes