Online banking fraud increase 132%

UK payment services organisation, APACS, has published a round-up of fraud losses during 2008.

Card fraud losses total £609.9 million, online banking fraud £52.5 million and cheque fraud losses amounted to £41.9 million.

In the case of card fraud, the two main areas of criminal activity involved transactions not protected by chip and PIN (specifically internet, phone and mail order) and fraud committed abroad using stolen UK card details in countries yet to upgrade to chip and PIN.

Last year, the lost and stolen card fraud total actually decreased by 4% to £54.1 million, which APACS attributes to the introduction of chip and PIN.

However, card ID theft saw an increase of 39%, to £47.4 million.

Fraudsters working in this area use personal documents belonging to their victims to obtain a genuine bank card.

Even more alarmingly, incidents of online banking fraud rose 132% in 2008, to £52.5 million.

APACS warns that while phishing incidents continue to rise, online banking customers are increasingly being targeted by malware attacks.

Malware includes viruses that can be installed on a computer without the user’s knowledge, typically by users clicking on a link in an unsolicited email.

It is capable of capturing passwords and other financial information by logging keystrokes.

Online bank customers should therefore always have their firewalls switched on and up-to-date anti-virus software installed.

APACS estimates that card fraud costs every person in the UK £10 per year; online banking fraud £0.87 per year and cheque fraud £0.69 per year.

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