Card fraudsters 'moving online'

By Sarah Engle, Fri 22 Jan 2010 - Published in Credit Cards

The improvements in card fraud security mean that criminals are moving their activities online, it has been suggested.

Sarah Blaney, fraud expert at card protection provider CPP, said offences such as cloning and skimming are becoming less common since the introduction of chip-and-pin technology, but this does not be all the dangers are disappearing.

"What we have seen in turn is a push to fraudsters going online, because there are less security checks and you don't need a pin number to verify any sort of transaction," she explained.

The expert also pointed out that online card fraud now accounts for one-third of all offences, compared to chip and pin which makes up one-fifth.

Ms Blaney added that consumers can often identify websites which are being used by fraudsters, as they tend to contain spelling and grammatical errors, in addition to lacking the closed padlock sign.

Figures from CPP show that almost three million people have been the victims of card fraud in the past two years, showing an increase of six per cent.

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