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Story URL: http://www.silicon.com/financialservices/0,3800010322,39168356,00.htm

London hottest for online card fraud
And the rest of the UK is getting worse...

By Tim Ferguson

Published: Wednesday 05 September 2007

London is the UK hotspot for card not present fraud committed through transactions made online, on the phone and by mail order.

By tracking the postcodes of addresses where fraudulently obtained goods are delivered fraud information group Early Warning has created a map showing the worst offending regions in the country.

The UK postcode with the worst record for fraudulent transactions was SE18 which includes Thamesmead and other parts of south-east London.

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Card not present fraud has risen by 22 per cent in the UK in the last year according to Early Warning. Other hotspots include Coventry, Leeds and Manchester.

The research also found increased fraud in many postcode areas where levels were previously negligible.

Early Warning MD Andrew Goodwill said the cost to traders of card not present fraud is predicted to hit £200m this year, resulting in £40m of lost revenue to the UK economy as a whole.

He said Home Office regulations "distancing the police from the situation" are making the problem worse along with the fact these crimes are often not fully reported. The slow uptake of security such as Verified by Visa and Secure Mastercard is also being blamed.

In order of the worst offending, the top 10 UK card not present fraud hotspots are: London, Manchester, Coventry, Kilmarnock, Bristol, Brighton, Leicester, Leeds, Glasgow and Nottingham.