The first half of 2009 has seen the total cost of credit and debit card fall by £71.4m, according to figures from the Financial Fraud Action UK (FFAUK).
The first half of 2009 has seen the total cost of credit and debit card fall by £71.4m, according to figures from the Financial Fraud Action UK (FFAUK).
The 23% fall was aided by a reduction of 46% in the number of skimmed or cloned cards since the same period in 2008.
Phone, internet and mail order fraud was also found to have fallen from £163.9m to £134m—a decrease of 18%. However, the amount of fraud committed in relation to Card ID theft increased by 23%, from £19.5m in 2008 to £23.9m this year.
FFAUK said that the fraud to turnover rate on debit and credit cards amounted to 0.1% in the first half of the year—the equivalent of a tenth of a penny in every £1 spent on cards.
Head of fraud control at FFAUK, Katy Worobec, said that although the figures were good news and showed that procedures implemented by transaction providers were making an impact, there is no room for complacency as emerging areas were making an impact.
Worobec said the organisation had seen a 36% increase in the amount of fraud committed on foreign cards so far this year.
“Although its difficult to prove, we think that one of the reasons for the dip in card losses may simply be as a result of fraudsters realising that they can prosper more by targeting foreign-issued cards—particularly those without chip and PIN protection and which currently have stronger currencies that the UK,” she added.
