One step ahead of the card fraudsters

The UK Payments Administration released the latest fraud figures today (doubleclick to enlarge):

This shows general card fraud is down 23% to £232.8 million in the first half of 2009 although, of concern, will be the fact that online fraud is increasing at a rapid click (55%) year-on-year.  This rise in cardholder not present activity is probably due to cardholder present fraud declining rapidly thanks to Chip & PIN.

Mind you, even the rise in internet fraud isn't too bad when you think that losses from phone, internet and mail order shopping fraud overall have fallen for the first time ever and now stand at £134 million.

According to the Payments Association, this is because of the increasing use of sophisticated fraud screening detection tools by retailers and banks, as well as the continuing growth in the use of MasterCard SecureCode and Verified by Visa by both online retailers and cardholders.

It all sounds rosy ... but for users of such services, it is still proving challenging as card readers and Chip & PIN are still called into question.

Just this week, consumer groups are telling banks that they must not always assume the customer is to blame if a payment is made with a PIN for example.

PINs can be compromised.

All in all, it seems to show that the anti-fraud measures are just about keeping ahead of the fraudsters however ... except when it comes to online.

Mind you, with most email accounts compromised this week, it just shows how difficult this battle will be ... after all, if Google, Microsoft and company can be phished, who's next?

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