Fraud figures fall overall but phone and cheque scams increasing

Figures show card and online banking fraud falling, but 'less sophisticated' phone and cheque scams are on the rise.

The level of fraud in the banking and card payment industries has fallen to a ten-year low, according to the latest figures from the Payments Council.

Credit and debit card fraud fell 7% to £341 million in 2011, meaning it has fallen by 45% over the past three years. Initiatives to combat this type of fraud include chip cards, online protection systems such as Verified by Visa and MasterCard Secure Code and, significantly, our increased awareness of this type of fraud and how to combat it.

Meanwhile, online banking fraud fell by 24% to £35.4 million. This is mainly thanks to better protection of computers with anti-virus software, banks providing customers with increased protection via additional software and log-in devices such as hand-held readers, and banks improving their fraud detection systems.

Phone and cheque fraud on the rise

However, telephone banking fraud losses rose by 32% to £16.7 million. Much of this was due to people being duped into giving out their personal information by fake emails or cold calls.

DCI Paul Barnard, who heads up the Dedicated Cheque and Plastic Crime Unit, says: “As technological advances have made our payments more secure, we’ve seen a spike in more simplistic crimes. Many scams involve customers being conned into handing over their cards and PINs, or their telephone banking security details by someone calling, pretending to be their bank or the police.

“Our appeal to the public is to be wary of any unsolicited phone calls or emails – never hand over your card and PIN or bank security details in full as neither your bank nor the police will ever ask you for these.” 

You can find out more about the phone scams to beware of in the article Sneakiest phone scams.

Cheque fraud rose by 17% to £34.3 million, mainly due to genuine cheques being stolen and having the payee details altered, and counterfeit cheques. The Payments Council says cheque printers are continuing to work on improving security features on cheques.

Where fraud is on the increase

Unsurprisingly, the south east of England, which includes London, saw the highest amount of credit and debit card losses - £149.9 million, although that’s down 4% on the 2010 figure. The lowest figure was in the north east of England, where there were £4.8 million-worth of losses, down 38% on 2010.

However, fraud rocketed in Northern Ireland, where losses were up 652% on 2010 to £6.3 million, and East Anglia, where losses rose 50% to £8.1 million. These two regions were the only ones where losses increased.

More: Tony Levene's scams blog | How to spot a fake banknote