Drop in credit card fraud since introduction of chip and Pin

March 15, 2007

According to figures just released, credit and debit card fraud fell by 3% throughout 2006.

Payments association Apacs has declared an overall decrease in fraud losses from £428million to £439.4million in 2005.

With the introduction of ‘chip and pin’ in February 2006 when paying for purchases, Apacs believe it has an extremely positive effect.

There have been suggestions that the drop in fraud figures was part of a long term downfall in this area anyway, however there was a remarkable drop of 47% in fraudulent retail face to face transactions, bringing the figure down to £72.1million.

The types of fraud where figures increased were:-

• payments without cardholders present (up 16%)
• counterfeit cards which have been cloned (up 3%)
• ID theft (up 5%)

An Apacs communications director appeals for the public and private sectors to unite their efforts and resources in a firm effort to combat the larger picture in the ongoing battle of credit card fraud.