The amount of money lost through card fraud in the UK fell by 23% during the first half of the year as new prevention measures came into effect, new figures reveal.

The total cost of fraud on credit cards and debit cards fell to £232.8 million from January to June, down from £304.2 million in the first half of last year, according to Financial Fraud Action UK (FFAUK).

Losses from counterfeit card crime, where cards are skimmed or copied, fell by the largest margin, from £88.8 million last year to £46.3 million. Card-not-present fraud, including internet, phone and mail order crime, fell 18% from £163.9 million last year to £134 million.

One way in which people leave themselves open to fraud is by holding onto credit cards they no longer use, in case they hit hard times. Currently 16.3 million consumers have dormant accounts, with a total credit limit of £200 billion. Since many of these accounts may be registered at an old address, they are easy pickings for fraudsters.

FFAUK also said that fraudsters may be moving into online banking scams and card crime overseas. Katy Worobec, head of fraud control at the organisation said: “These latest fraud figures are good news, but we know there’s no room for complacency.”

She added: “Reasons behind this decrease include the increasing use of sophisticated fraud screening detection tools by retailers and banks, as well as the continuing growth in the use of MasterCard SecureCode and Verified by Visa [online payment systems that make cards more secure when shopping online] by both online retailers and cardholders.”

However, whilst fraud in the UK fell by 9% last year, there was an increase in the level of fraud on foreign credit cards used in the UK.

“Although it is 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 than sterling,” said Worubec.

“The fact that we have seen a 36% increase in the first half of this year in the amount of fraud being committed on foreign issued cards here in the UK adds some weight to this theory.”

Whilst most types of card fraud in the UK decreased, there was a rise in two significant types of fraud. Card ID theft, whereby criminals apply for a credit card in someone else’s name, increased by 23%. And fraud conducted through phishing emails, in which recipients are tricked into entering their bank details into bogus banking websites, increased by 55%.

This entry was posted on Thursday, October 8th, 2009 at 8:40 am and is filed under Banking, Credit Cards. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.