Over half a billion worth of credit card fraud last year

September 16th, 2008 • Related • Filed Under

A recent report has shown that last year credit card fraud amounted to over half a billion pounds in the UK, reflecting concerns that some forms of credit card fraud have been rocketing, partly as a result of the details of UK cardholders being stolen and then counterfeit cards being created and used abroad in destination where there is no chip and pin technology in place. Credit card fraud resulted in losses of £535 million last year, and according to recent figures there has been a year on year rise of 20% in this type of crime.

There were 2.7 million fraudulent credit card transactions last year, which reflected a steep increase from the year before. The figures were recently included in the Home Office annual crime figures report, and come from the payment clearing agency APACS.

The cost of credit card fraud relating to counterfeit and cloned cards rose by around 46% according to the figures, taking the cost to around £144 million. Another increase was seen in the form of CNP or Card Not Present credit card fraud levels, and this is where the card is used in telephone or online transactions, where the actual card is not needed to make the transaction.

One industry official said: “The increase is driven by a rise in fraud abroad with UK card details stolen for use in countries yet to upgrade to chip and pin.”

However, industry officials have said that although this type of card fraud has risen there has been a drop in the level of online banking fraud in the UK. Fraudsters are still using phishing scams to try and commit online banking fraud, and there has been a rise in the number of attempts by fraudsters, but officials state that consumers are getting wiser to this sort of activity, and are therefore not falling for these scams as much.

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