The supermarket was staffed by six people who were all warned to be on the look out for fraudulent credit cards. Dr. Kemp arranged for 44 of his students to pose as shoppers and test the staffs' ability to spot photo-card misuse. Each student was armed with four cards. One showed the student as they were, one showed the student wearing make-up, one showed an individual who vaguely resembled the student and the last card depicted someone who looked nothing like the bearer.
People usually recognize photographs of individuals based on a familiarity of the subject.
A photograph captures only one angle and expression out of thousands of different combinations. People will recognize photographs of family, friends and well known individuals easily. He also said that in a non- experimental situation, such as a supermarket, the incidence of fraud detection would be even lower. The results of Dr. Kemp's supermarket experiment proved very interesting. In all, the majority of fraudulent cards were accepted.