Online fraud dominates card losses

Internet scams dominate the latest figures for credit card fraud, with the 2006 numbers having just been released.

Card fraud as a whole cost £428m last year, according to figures from payment association APACS (official website).

Online banking fraud cost £33.5m (£23.2m in 2005), with Card-not-present fraud (including Internet scams) jumping from the 2005 figure of £183.2m to £212.6m last year - a 16% increase.

APACS's Sandra Quinn said:

"Fighting fraud is never going to succeed with a single-layered approach. It requires different sectors – including public and private – to work together on developing and implementing strategies, sharing best practice and, most importantly, sharing data.

We need government intervention to remove the current barriers to this and we welcome improvements proposed in the Fraud Review and the Serious Crime Bill."

Which all sounds rather too Big Brother for my liking.