London is still top card fraud hotspot

London is still the top spot for credit card fraud according to the latest research from The 3rd Man.

The organisation carried out the research of over 30 million ‘good’ and ‘bad’ card transactions in the six months to June 2008, in conjunction with 192business.com.

Other areas appearing in the top ten hotspot list included Romford, Manchester, Ilford, Coventry, Nottingham and Dartford.

Beyond the top ten places, Wales and Northern Ireland are the least fraudulent places in the UK, with Cardiff and Belfast recording some levels of fraud activity. In the south west of England, Exeter has the most fraudulent activity, with east Newcastle racking up the highest score in the north. In Scotland, Aberdeen and Glasgow have relatively high incidents of fraud compared to other parts of the country.

The report also claimed that for every fraud that is reported, a further eight attempted frauds are unreported and ignored by both law enforcement and the banks.

Andrew Goodwill, fraud expert and director at the 3rd Man Group, said: “Investigations like these continue to show that card crime is a major and growing threat to consumers and retailers. By pooling and sharing online retailers’ transaction data and their fraud experiences, we can see exactly how that trend is changing and continuing to grow. Fraudsters simply don’t give up.”

David Pope, director of 192business.com, added: “We did this study to help fraud managers using our customer ID check solutions to better understand how fraudsters work so they can prevent fraudsters from coming to their site.

“We work with ecommerce sites such as Panasonic, Halfords and 24/7 Electrical to help them allow valid customers to transact while at the same time spotting card fraudsters and preventing card fraud. Fraudsters share information and work together so the fraud prevention industry should be doing the same.”