You would think so but no. Visa etc and the banks don't want that kind of trouble. To charge cards you need a special bank account called a merchant account.

A condition of this merchant account is that if someone issues a charge-back on their creditcard, if the merchant can't prove that the card owner brought the service/product then the funds are taken directly form their merchant account by the bank and then given back to the card-holder.

This is why anti-fraud systems are so important to merchants.

Case: I steal your creditcard, I buy a tv worth $10, 000. You notice this, and chargeback the merchant. The merchant has to pay you $10, 000 and he lost teh cost price of the tv he sold me (say $7, 000).

So by accepting your stolen card as payment, the merchant just lost $17, 000!

Source: I build payment gateways.

The liability for the card holder is limited by law to something like $50. Whether the credit card company eats the loss or wether the merchant gives them the money back depends I believe on how much information the merchant collected about the transaction. My impression is that usually the merchant eats the loss.

Target enjoys solving crimes. They have their own forensic lab in Minnesota.

As former manager of a hypermarket with 170 people team, I need to remind that shop is filming cash registers for many reasons. E.g. to resolve disputes about counting mistakes at the checkout, theft by cashiers, theft by customers.

The merchant is 100% responsible for these losses, which is why they care so much.

It's the merchant's duty to ensure that the person who is charging the purchase owns the credit card, which is why they'll often ask for ID along with the CC.

A stolen CC is useless if no merchant accepts it.