UK card fraud reaches £610m

Number of internet scams rise as online shopping becomes more popular

Online banking fraud reached £52.5m in 2008

Card fraud losses in the UK reached £609.9m last year – up from £535.2m in 2007 – driven by cardholder-not-present crime, according to the latest figures released by UK payments association Apacs.

Fraud taking place in transactions without chip-and-PIN protection – in purchases made via the internet, phone and mail order – increased by 13 per cent over the past year and represent 54 per cent of all card fraud losses.

Online banking fraud totalled £52.5m in 2008, a 132 per cent rise from 2007 figures. According to Apacs, the increase should be seen alongside the popularity of online shopping and increasing numbers of businesses accepting cards remotely.

Phishing is still on the up, says Apacs, and online banking users remain the target of malware attacks, regardless of industry initiatives to tackle fraud such as the secure online payment systems MasterCard SecureCode and Verified by Visa, designed to prevent web shopping scams.

The association said that same-day payment service Faster Payments did not affect online banking fraud losses during 2008, despite concerns over security due to shorter clearance windows. The system was launched in May and Apacs said that online crime figures in the second half of last year roughly match those in the first half of 2008.

As part of the government’s attempts to crack down on UK credit and debit crime, the newly launched National Fraud Strategic Authority today announced a three-year strategy aimed at protecting consumers and businesses.

The payments industry and Apacs are collaborating on the plan, which will see the setup of a national fraud reporting centre as one of the initiatives.