PayPal president David Marcus recently spent some time overseas and as has happened to countless others around the world, his credit card got skimmed. But rather than be bitter about the incident, he took to Twitter to use the experience to promote PayPal.

In a recent post on the matter, Marcus said his card - complete with EMV security microchip - got skimmed while in the UK. As a result, the card was used to process multiple fraudulent transactions. It is something that would not have happened if the merchant he was using accepted PayPal, Marcus concluded.

A number of credit cards in the US now include EMV security chips but the truth of the matter is that America lags far behind the rest of the world with regard to credit card security. The US is responsible for about a fourth of all credit card transactions worldwide but almost half of the world's credit card fraud takes place in the states.

That is because credit card issuers in the US require a signature as the method of approval for transactions.

Virtually every other major region in the world has since migrated to using a combination of microchips and PIN numbers, similar to those used for debit cards. Without the PIN, the card is pretty much useless. Fortunately, however, US card issuers MasterCard and Visa will be transitioning to the PIN system late next year.