By Julian Goldsmith, 12 March 2008 09:31
NEWS
Card fraud rose by 25 per cent in 2007, according to the latest figures from payment clearing industry body Apacs.
Apacs said £535.2m was lost to card fraud overall last year, due mainly to stolen UK card details used in countries yet to upgrade to chip and PIN - a 77 per cent rise on the year before.
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The biggest rise was in counterfeit, skimmed or cloned card fraud, which rose by 46 per cent over the year to £144m. However the biggest losses were in phone, internet and mail order fraud, up in 2007 by 37 per cent to £290m.
The biggest reduction was a fall of 18 per cent in fraud on lost or stolen cards to £56m.
In terms of UK regions, the South East tops the league with £178m lost on plastic card fraud on UK issued cards - almost the same as the previous year. The biggest growth was in the East Midlands with an increase of 52 per cent over the year. The biggest fall was in East Anglia, with a drop of 17 per cent to £4.8m.
The figures point to pre-chip and PIN card fraud not only shifting to other areas but actually increasing too. However, Apacs is determined to accentuate the positive effects of the technology.
In a statement, an Apacs spokeswoman said: "Although card fraud levels have now begun to go up again due to fraud abroad and card-not-present fraud losses, chip and PIN has proved to be an undoubted success in reducing card fraud on the UK high street."
Comments
There are 7 comments. Join the discussion
1. anonymous
Maybe the banks should provide us with a home Chip and PIN device you can plug into your computers USB.
On-line fraud, in the UK would disappear over-night.
Not like they are short a penny or two, and in bulk they can't be more than a few pounds cost - certainly less than the cost of all the junk mail the banks stuff in your letter box.
2. anonymous
USB chip and pin device for personal use....Here here! The banks make extremely healthy profits, despite all their moaning. They can afford to do this!
It cannot be beyond the wit of man to design a compact USB device so that those of us who move around can take it with us as well - otherwise one of the great conveniences of internet shopping would be lost.
3. David Fletcher
It's all very well talking about special hardware security devices, BUT unlike the BBC iPlayer they would need to be made to work with all systems - Mac, Linux in all its flavours, FreeBSD, OpenBSD, Haiku, etc., etc. as well as Windows.
4. David Fletcher
Fraud in non chip and PIN countries could very easily be stopped using internet banking systems.
Simply place by default a block on every card when used outside its home country. Enable the customer to remove the block in specified countries before traveling on business and holidays via a section on the internet banking web site. Problem solved.
5. Karen Challinor
'In a statement, an Apacs spokeswoman said: "Although card fraud levels have now begun to go up again due to fraud abroad and card-not-present fraud losses, chip and PIN has proved to be an undoubted success in reducing card fraud on the UK high street."'
even if chip and pin were an abject failure there is no way that it would be admitted and card not present fraud would not be as rife were is not for the pin part of the equation
chip + pin is equivalent to card number + pin + security code and as long as it stays like that then card not present fraud will go through the roof
6. anonymous
Why talk about hardware when Paypal has already solved this problem with software. You take it with you everywhere you shop online and you dont divuldge your bank details. Your can link your Paypal account to your bank account or credit card and you benefit from secure online payments and fraud protection. If the retail does not support Paypal payment method then complain and shop elsewhere. They will soon get the message.
7. Ian Manocha
Banking institutions need to significantly ramp up their investment levels. Most notably in predictive capabilities to prevent bogus transactions, and in operational support for customer services staff handling cases.
Fraud prevention and protection is an industry-wide issue. Fraudsters are becoming increasingly sophisticated and banks need sophisticated technology to catch them out. What is needed here - a consolidated industry-wide effort to tackle fraud.