The fraudulent use of credit and debit cards to buy items over the internet or the telephone has soared by more than a third during the past two years, according to new figures.
Payment services group the Association for Payment Clearing Services (APACS) said that so-called card-not-present fraud, which involves someone using the details of another person's card to buy something remotely, cost the industry £109.6m in the year to the end of June - the equivalent of £300,000 a day.
Card-not-present fraud was the second biggest element of total card fraud, which reached £411.6m during the year, down slightly on the previous year's figure of £431.3m.
The biggest contributor to the total, at £128.8m, remained counterfeit card fraud, where information on a card is illegally copied. Fraudulent use of lost or stolen cards cost the industry £107.2m during the period, while fraud as a result of identity theft (when someone uses another person's details to apply for credit in their name) reached £25m, up from £15.4m in the previous year.
APACS warned that, despite the rise in card-not-present fraud, many people were still failing to take basic security precautions to prevent it. The group said one in three people did not shred or burn bank and credit card statements, despite them containing all their account details, while 19% had let someone else use their card to buy something over the internet or by telephone.
One in five people admitted they only occasionally checked their statements or did not look at them at all, and 17% said it did not worry them if someone took their card out of their sight while they were shopping.
Card issuers and retailers are currently in the process of rolling out chip and PIN cards in a bid to cut fraud. The new cards will have a smart chip which can store information more securely than a magnetic strip, and customers will have to verify transaction by keying in a four-digit PIN number, rather than signing a receipt.
Payment services group the Association for Payment Clearing Services (APACS) said that so-called card-not-present fraud, which involves someone using the details of another person's card to buy something remotely, cost the industry £109.6m in the year to the end of June - the equivalent of £300,000 a day.
Card-not-present fraud was the second biggest element of total card fraud, which reached £411.6m during the year, down slightly on the previous year's figure of £431.3m.
The biggest contributor to the total, at £128.8m, remained counterfeit card fraud, where information on a card is illegally copied. Fraudulent use of lost or stolen cards cost the industry £107.2m during the period, while fraud as a result of identity theft (when someone uses another person's details to apply for credit in their name) reached £25m, up from £15.4m in the previous year.
APACS warned that, despite the rise in card-not-present fraud, many people were still failing to take basic security precautions to prevent it. The group said one in three people did not shred or burn bank and credit card statements, despite them containing all their account details, while 19% had let someone else use their card to buy something over the internet or by telephone.
One in five people admitted they only occasionally checked their statements or did not look at them at all, and 17% said it did not worry them if someone took their card out of their sight while they were shopping.
Card issuers and retailers are currently in the process of rolling out chip and PIN cards in a bid to cut fraud. The new cards will have a smart chip which can store information more securely than a magnetic strip, and customers will have to verify transaction by keying in a four-digit PIN number, rather than signing a receipt.
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