Wednesday, 22 November 2006

Online Banking Fraud in UK on the Rise

A surge in 'phishing' in the first half of 2006 has produced a sharp rise in the amount of money being lost to online banking fraud. UK banks reported a 55 per cent increase in losses from fraudulent online transactions for the first half of the year.

Phishing involves using fake web sites to lure people into revealing their bank account numbers. The number of recorded incidents rose 16-fold to 5,059, said the Association of Payment Clearing Services (APACS).

Losses totalled USD 42.8 million, up from USD 27.6 million from the first six months of 2005, according to APACS.

However, the amount of money lost to credit and debit card fraud fell again. APACS said this was due to the continued impact of the new chip-and-pin cards. These cards were introduced by the banking industry in 2004 in an attempt to combat the rapid rise in fraud using plastic cards.

Plastic card fraud in the first half of 2006 was down 5per cent on a year ago, at UKP 209 million, with losses due to cards that were stolen in the post being more than halved.

"These latest fraud figures show that the industry's efforts are making their mark," said Sandra Quinn of APACS.