14 March 2007
Card not present fraud rose in 2006 by 16% according to the latest figures from the payments association Apacs, but face-to-face fraud was down 47% - thought to be brought about by the introduction of chip and PIN.
On the whole, credit card fraud within the UK was down 13% to £412 million, but online banking fraud was found to have risen by 44%, thanks to 'phishing' attacks and trojans which install malicious software on PCs, allowing them to capture sensitive information like PIN numbers and passwords.
Fraud on lost or stolen cards witnessed a decrease of 23% and fraud caused by the theft or non-receipt of mail was down by 62% to £15.4 million - showing that criminals were increasingly turning away from the traditional means of fraudulently taking money and instead, turning to online stores and shopping abroad.
Sandra Quinn from Apacs told This is Money that despite all the good news, criminals were still cloning British cards for use in countries that had not upgraded to chip and PIN.
In related news, a number of high street banks have been heavily criticised by the Information Commissioner's Office after the watchdog found that the lenders were dumping customers' personal data into outside bins - breaking data protection rules and putting their customers' financial assets at risk.
© 2008 Adfero Ltd
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