Figures released today show that fraud related to card-not-present (CNP) transactions – i.e. internet, phone and mail order transactions – resulted in losses of £70.2 million in the first six months of 2004, rising to £90.6 million in the first half of this year.
In contrast, credit card fraud as a whole fell from £252.6 million to £219.4 million over the same periods.
APACS (formerly an acronym for the Association for Payment Clearing Services and now just known as APACS) believes that the conflicting figures are down to the success of the chip and PIN roll out, which has forced fraudsters to move online.
At the same time, online banking fraud losses have also increased.
These totalled £14.5 million in the six months to the end of June 2005 compared with £4 million in the same time period last year. Both online card fraud losses and online banking losses have grown hand-in-hand with the number of internet users and huge volumes of online card transactions and banking transactions.
But in the wake of research commissioned by the Association, APACS is concerned that many people are not even aware of some of the basic online pitfalls.
The research shows that one in eight online shoppers have failed to log out when shopping online, leaving their financial details available to others; one quarter of online shoppers do not check whether a website is safe and secure; while almost half of women and half of 16–24 year-olds in the UK do not know what phishing is.
APACS has launched a fraud awareness campaign to highlight the risks and to make consumers aware of the simple steps they can take to protect their cards and online bank accounts.
It warns that the majority of internet card fraud involves a criminal obtaining genuine card details in the real world then using them to shop online. Consumers can minimise the chances of becoming a victim by simply keeping cards and card details as secure as possible and not letting their cards out of their sight.
APACS recommends that, whenever they are given the option, consumers should sign up to the Verified by Visa and MasterCard SecureCode schemes, which enable cardholders to authenticate themselves when shopping online. This in turn makes it more difficult for a fraudster to use their card details, albeit only a few card issuers currently participate.
APACS has also launched ‘10 Top Tips’ to help customers protect themselves online.
Sandra Quinn, director of corporate communications for APACS, said: “These latest online fraud losses are comparatively low considering the huge number of transactions now being carried out online and it is clear that fraudsters are having more success targeting cards than online bank accounts – so our campaign is focused on cardholders.”
“Probably nearly everyone with access to the internet will buy something online this Christmas and there is absolutely no reason why they shouldn’t do this in complete confidence providing they follow some very simple rules – all of which are spelt out in our top ten tips,” she added. “However, if you are going to do one thing this Christmas to help protect your cards from the fraudster even more then sign up to Verified by Visa or MasterCard SecureCode wherever possible when you come across them on an online site.”
