High Street card fraud falls

High Street fruadsters have been forced to change tactics as Chip and PIN appears to be making some card fraud more difficult.

According to card fraud detection firm Retail Decisions (ReD), the number of fraudulent transactions dropped in the second half of 2005 by a quarter compared to the first half of the year.

ReD said it has seen card-not-present fraud (using cards to buy things by mail, telephone or internet) rise three-fold in the same period because Chip and PIN technology has made it harder to commit fraud in the shops.

Carl Clump, CEO of ReD, said: "It's the introduction of Chip and PIN. There's no doubt about it. It's much more difficult to commit fraud in a face-to-face environment.

"Fraud keeps migrating. It will go to the card issuers who haven't yet converted to Chip and PIN. But the progress today has been very good."

The company said fraudsters tend to commit more card crime at peak buying times in the hope they will be camouflaged.

The top five goods that fraudsters tried to steal over Christmas with credit cards were all high-tech gadgets. They included Sony and Acer laptops, the Sony PSP and the black iPod Photo.