Online security services reach 25 million cards

More than 25 million credit and debit cards have been signed up to secure online payment services such as Verified by Visa and MasterCard SecureCode.

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According to payments organisation Apacs, the figure represents a year-on-year increase of 600 per cent on 2006 and 150 per cent in the last 12 months.

Cardholders are now registering with the services at a rate of 1.5 million per month.

According to Apacs, online retailers who use Verified by Visa and MasterCard SecureCode handle one-third of UK online shopping.

An Apacs spokeswoman said in a statement: "Shopping online is now very much part of our everyday life. This is an important milestone as it means that more than half of online shoppers have now registered their cards. The banking industry continues to urge those cardholders not yet signed up to do so, as we all need to play our part to make life harder for online shopping fraudsters."

Fraud figures from Apacs show internet card fraud amounted to £223.8m in 2007, 77 per cent of the total card-not-present fraud, which typically stems from channels such as telephone or mail order sales.

This figure has gone up by 45 per cent, from £154.5m in 2006.