Cardholder not present (CNP) fraud fell for the first time in
the UK from January to June this year according to figures from
Financial Fraud Action UK.
Card not present frauds, a past scourge of e-tail and mail order
suppliers, fell 18% in the six months to £134m, down a peak in 2008
at £328m, the banking industry body formerly known as APACS
revealed.
"Reasons behind this decrease include the increasing use of
sophisticated fraud screening detection tools by retailers and
banks," said Katy Worobec, head of fraud control at Financial Fraud
Action UK.
The growth in use of fraud prevention measures including
MasterCard SecureCode and Verified by Visa by both retailers and
card users had also paid dividends, she added.
Total credit card fraud in the UK fell 23% to £233m however,
ensuring that that CNP remains responsible for more than half of
the frauds.
"Although it's difficult to prove, we think that one of the
reasons for this 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
sterling," said Worobec.
"The fact that we've seen a 36% increase in the first half of
this year in the amount of fraud being committed on foreign cards
issued here in the UK adds some weight to this theory," she
added.
Card ID theft rose 23% to £23.9m and a 55% year-on-year increase
in online banking fraud totalling £39m, due to criminals targeting
customers PCs with malware rather than the banks' own systems.
The increase was not surprising said Mel Morris, CEO of Prevx,
"Due to the highly sophisticated and fast-evolving methods of
cybercriminals, even the leading anti-malware solutions customers
might use will miss nearly 70% of new infections."
Cards such as the Visa Emue card, which comes with a keypad and
an embedded screen that allows users to generate a one-off pass
code, should provide more security for web-based resellers.
A version of this story appeared on
Microscope.