Fraud on UK cards 'higher overseas'

Fraud losses on UK credit and debit cards are 14 times higher overseas than they are in this country, a report claims.

The introduction of anti-fraud measures in the UK, such as chip and pin, has pushed card fraud into countries where the system has not yet been introduced and fraud protection is weaker.  A similar pattern is being seen in other European countries, such as France and Spain, according to a report by industry consultant Peter Welch.

He said losses from overseas fraud accounted for 40% of total losses on UK credit and debit cards in 2007, rising to 43% in France and around half of all losses in Spain.

But he said because international card usage is much lower than domestic usage, overseas fraud losses are far higher as a proportion of the amount being spent, with international losses on UK cards actually 14 times higher than ones in this country relative to turnover.

Figures from payments group APACS show that card fraud rose by 25% in the UK to £535 million during 2007, despite the introduction of chip and Pin leading to a 67% fall in losses on the UK high street during the past three years to £73 million.

Counterfeit fraud rose by 46% last year to £144.3 million, mainly due to fraudsters copying UK cards and then using them abroad.

Mr Welch said card providers were also facing a growing threat from so-called card not present fraud, with the fraudulent use of credit and debit cards to buy items over the internet, telephone or by post accounting for three-quarters of domestic losses in the UK in 2007, compared with only around a third in 2004.

Overall, credit and debit card fraud losses in the UK are far higher than in France and Spain at 0.094% of card turnover in 2007, nearly twice as high as France's 0.049% and almost four times greater than Spain's 0.024%.

The higher losses in the UK are likely to reflect the fact that more cards are in issue in this country and there is also a greater use of credit cards.