Big rise in overseas card fraud
There has been a surge in fraudulent activity involving credit and debit cards issued in the UK but used abroad.
According to the latest figures from the Association for Payment Clearing Services (Apacs), overseas fraud committed on UK cards rose by 126 per cent to £108.8 million in the first half of the year.
In contrast, card fraud inside the UK dropped 4 per cent to £154.8 million over the same period.
The dip in domestic fraud has been credited to the success of the chip-and-pin system in combating criminal activity using counterfeit or stolen cards.
However, that same success has had the effect of forcing criminals abroad. The information stored on the card’s magnetic strip is duplicated in order to produce a fake card that is then used for transactions in countries that have not yet adopted the chip-and-pin system.
Another contributory factor to the large rise in overseas fraud has been the growing numbers of business travellers and holidaymakers who pay by debit and credit cards while abroad.
Sandra Quinn, director of communications at Apacs, said: “These figures show how the fraudsters have changed tack. A couple of years ago they were mainly stealing cards and card details for use in UK shops and cash machines. But today, because of chip-and-pin, they have been driven overseas - using fake magnetic stripe cards specifically in countries which have yet to upgrade to chip-and-pin.”
Elsewhere, high street card fraud fell by 11 per cent compared with the first six months of 2006, while losses incurred when stolen cards are used to take money from cash machines showed a fall of 57 per cent.
However, card-not-present fraud, which covers internet, phone or mail order transactions, recorded a significant 44 per cent increase to £137 million, the result, Apacs said, of the boom in online shopping.
There was better news concerning online banking where fraud dropped by 67 per cent to £8 million.
Date:4 October 2007
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