Yea, it seems to come down to the penalties being high enough that this fraud isn't worth it. As a software engineer, the idea of writing in my bad handwriting

Yea, it seems to come down to the penalties being high enough that this fraud isn't worth it. As a software engineer, the idea of writing in my bad handwriting the tip and total and then someone who is probably in a hurry typing it in seems like a way to introduce more human error. That's much less likely to happen with a terminal and, since most banks here send you instant payment notifications, you're likely to catch it immediately. Obviously this system is working for billions of payments a year over there so it can't be too much of an issue! Next time I'm there, I'll not worry about it.