7:09 am, August 19, 2008
£567.7billion was spend in the UK on credit and debit cards in 2007.
But, of over 9.9billion transactions, losses topped £535million, up by a quarter on 2006.
This has led the RMIF to warn dealers about the dangers of card fraud.
Chip & PIN alone is not enough, despite face-to-face transactions dropping by two-thirds. 59 per cent of card fraud in 2006 plummeted to 14 per cent in 2007. Now, it’s counterfeit card fraud you need to watch for.
Fake cards, created using stolen details, scored losses of £144m in 2007. That represents an increase of nearly a half in 2006.
Ray Holloway, RMIF director of independent membership, said: ‘The introduction of Chip & PIN has greatly reduced credit card fraud, but there are still a few businesses that accept credit payment have yet to move across to Chip & PIN technology.’
‘With fraudsters still more than active, the RMIF urges all its members who have not done so already to upgrade to Chip & PIN.’
Look out for more fraud avoidance advice from the RMIF in the coming months. ‘There are also training courses available that help retail staff identify counterfeit and stolen credit cards, and the RMIF will be advising its membership on this.’
