credit card fraud levels resulted in costs of over half a billion pounds last year, with crime levels in relation to credit card fraud rocketing.

credit card fraud levels resulted in costs of over half a billion pounds last year, with crime levels in relation to credit card fraud rocketing. The data comes from a recently released report, and officials state that part of the reason for the rise is that cardholders’ details are being stolen or cloned in destinations abroad where chip and pin in not in use.One official said: “The increase is driven by a rise in fraud abroad with UK card details stolen for use in countries yet to upgrade to chip and pin.” However, it was also noted that there had been an increase in CNP or Card Not Present credit card fraud, which is where the card does not have to be present for a transaction to be made, such as with online or telephone transactions.
The number of fraudulent credit card transactions last year soared to 2.7 million transactions, and the cost relating to counterfeit or cloned cards rocketed by around 46% to about £144 million. The information was provided by the payment clearance service APACS and was recently included in the Home Office annual crime figures report. Industry officials have said, however, that online banking fraud levels have been falling, although consumers are still urged to be very vigilant, as phishing scam attempts have been rising.