14 DAY TRIAL // According to an UK Cards Association report, the losses resulted from card and cheque fraud have decreased in 2010 compared to the previous year, suggesting that industry initiatives are working.
The total fraud losses from UK cards was £365.4 million in 2010, which is 17% lower than in 2009 and the lowest in the past ten years.
The UK Cards Association says that some of the measures that led to this decrease were awareness about protecting PoS and ATMs, expansion of the MasterCard SecureCode and Verified by Visa anti-fraud programs, better collaboration and exchange of intelligence between industry players and the increasing use of fraud detection tools.
The adoption of the chip and PIN system at European and international level also helped restrict the profitability of skimming attacks.
The online banking fraud losses also decreased by a considerable 22% in 2010. They amounted to a total of £46.7 million.
Even more impressive is that during that time the number of phishing attacks rose by 21%, suggesting they are not as effective as before.
The decrease of cheque fraud losses was not as significant, from £29.8 million in 2009 to £28.9 million in 2010, and mostly resulted from people not using cheques anymore.
The only type of fraud that registered an increase in losses last year was phone banking fraud. The losses totalled £12.7 million, which is 5% more than in 2009. This is the result of people falling for cold calling phishing attacks, where fraudsters impersonate bank employees.
"Whilst another drop in fraud is good news, the fraudsters haven’t shut up shop which is why there can be no room for complacency on the part of the banking industry, retailers, law enforcement or indeed customers themselves," warned Detective Chief Inspector Paul Barnard, head of the Police's Dedicated Cheque and Plastic Crime Unit (DCPCU).