UK plastic fraud losses fall for first time in 3 years

A rise in online banking fraud losses took some of the shine off the overall fall in debit and credit fraud in the UK last year. Official figures from the UK Cards Association, which represents UK credit and debit card providers, published on Wednesday show that fraud on debit and credit cards fell by 28 per cent in 2009 to £ …

[Anonymous Coward]

I hate these announcements

They are total shite and just a way of the card companies and banks to slap themselves on the back for a job badly done.

They claim this amazing reduction is due to many things such as chip and pin but the other reasons given are "the advancement of fraud prevention technology" well that's great...Chip and pin was introduced accross the country in 2004, we can see from the provided link that this means that the amount of fraud has increased by just under £1mil. Basically staying the same....

SO with all the millions of pounds spent on chip and pin and "other technologies" we are back where we started before these amazing new technologies were even tested, let alone introduced to the public. Card not present fraud....well that's gone up by a whopping £83.2Mil since 2005. The only places where we are better off is fraud on non recipt of mail, which was stopped by the couriers/royal mail and Fraud on lost and stolen cards, but that's easily explained away by saying that people would rather choose the easier option of conducting their fraud online rather than risking a face to face encounter in a shop.

Basically the banks have done fuck all but are trying to justify their bonus payments...Tossers.

[Paul Hates Handles]

bullshit

Are the figures just based on people whose claims for refunds were honored?

Some banks seem hell-bent on denying fraud and blaming the account holders for "giving someone their card and pin". The law needs to be changed back so all fraudulent transactions get reported to police - that way the banks don't do the investigation and you know that they're not going to be able to just ignore their responsibilities.

[Joe Montana]

Reason for reduction

What this study fails to take into account is that people simply had less credit available to them in 2009 than they did in 2008, and are more wary of using the credit that they do have.

[Anonymous Coward]

RE: Reason for reduction

...and in 2008, people had already booked summer holidays to countries which do NOT have chip+pin and then got stung by fraud.

By 2009 less people could afford a holiday to these places, so obviously foreign card fraud was reduced.

It's like saying that our society is crime-free because donkey thefts have been reduced to almost zero over the past 100 years...

[Mike Lovell]

Good way to stay safe

Don't use Argos Online!