Credit card fraud sinks to 11-year low

Anti-fraud initiatives hit the mark

Credit card fraud losses have fallen to an 11-year low as anti-fraud initiatives continue to hit home.

According to Financial Fraud Action (FFA) UK, losses on UK cards fell nine per cent annually to £169.8m in the first half of 2011. This is the third consecutive fall and the lowest figure for 11 years.

FFA, the name under which the financial services industry co-ordinates its activity on fraud, attributed the decline to the success of a number of industry initiatives. This includes the increasing use of fraud detection software, the rollout of updated chip cards and the increasing rollout of chip-and-PIN technology abroad.

Online banking fraud losses also fell 32 per cent to £16.9m, although cheque fraud losses rose 17 per cent to £16.4m and phone banking fraud losses hiked 48 per cent to £8.6m.

DCI Paul Barnard, head of the Dedicated Cheque and Plastic Crime Unit – the special police squad which is sponsored by the banking industry – said: "Losses are appreciably lower than they were a few years ago and everyone involved in tackling fraud has reason to be encouraged by this – and that includes bank customers who, as their own front line of defence, have certainly played their part too."

FFA also stressed that card and banking fraud accounts for just 1.2 per cent of the total cost of fraud in all its guises to the UK, based on estimates from the National Fraud Authority.