March 7, 2006

Credit card and debit card fraud fell last year to £440 million, a reduction of 13 per cent.

Credit card fraud in 2004 stood at over £508 million and was forecast to rise to £800 million by 2005.

The introduction of Chip and Pin has had an immediate effect in the reduction of credit and debit card fraud. Chip and Pin has now been hailed a success by APACS, the payment clearance association.

Chip and Pin targets the use of cloned where signatures can be forged at a point of sale. Now consumers have a unique personal identification number (PIN), which is entered into a keypad when an item is purchased. The consumers PIN is unique to them and in no circumstances must a PIN be revealed to anyone.

One sector where credit card fraud is still a problem is the internet. Cloned or stolen can still be used to purchase goods online. APACS has announced they plan to research the use of portable keypads that credit and debit card holders can use while purchasing items while online. This keypad would be used to enter their personal identification number.

Sandra Quinn of APACS said in a statement. "Back in 2002, we forecast that fraud would have risen to 800 million pounds in 2005 if we didn't make the move to chip and pin so it's heartening to see total losses well beneath this figure."