20 May 2009
The economic downturn is seeing a rise in online fraud, putting consumers at risk.
Findings from Cifas, the UK's fraud prevention service, show that its rise is likely to have been helped out by the speed at which criminals can get hold of details.
It refers to statistics from Apacs, which recently showed card-not-present fraud to have increased by 13% over the course of the last year.
Richard Hurley, Cifas Communications Manager, commented: "While the rest of us are reining in our behaviour as a result of the recession, the increase in facility takeover and online frauds demonstrates clearly that fraudsters are simply redirecting their efforts."
Online fraud has substantial gains for those who perform it, the body warned, with card details sold on for as little as 50 pence.
Apacs recently announced that plastic card spending during the first quarter was up 5.4% on the same period of last year.