Tuesday, January 20, 2009

Credit Card Fraud Up Down Under

Credit Card fraud rates are "jumping" faster than ever, not just here, but around the globe.  In this article, the APCA announced that there's been huge rises in CNP transactions and that credit card fraud spiked to 50.2 cents per $1000, or almost 7 times higher than debit's 7.4 cents per $1000 transacted. Here's the article from Karen Dearne, who writes for Austrailian IT.

Credit card fraud spikes | Australian IT
CREDIT card fraud in Australia jumped to $233 million in the last financial year, up from $157 million in 2006-07, according to the Australian Payments Clearing Association.

The losses are due to increased fraud across borders, and huge rises in card-not-present (CNP) fraud involving online, phone or mail transactions.  Editor's Note: Huge rises in card-not-present fraud can be eliminated by morphing them into card-present transactions with the HomeATM SwipePIN device...)


Total fraud on Australian credit cards amounted to $132 million; of this, $73 million was obtained by criminals using the cards in other countries. More than $63 million was lost to CNP scams ($22 million within Australia and $41.6 million on locally-issued cards used overseas).

Skimmed and counterfeit cards accounted for $42 million in losses ($18 million within Australia, and $24 million on locally issued cards used overseas).

For the first time, losses due to fraud on cards originally issued overseas topped $100 million; criminals using foreign cards within Australia reaped almost $101 million, up from $66 million in 2006-2007.  The number of local cases involving skimmed or counterfeit cards from overseas almost doubled: more than 155,000 incidents were reported, resulting in total losses of $65 million, compared with 82,000 and $40 million the previous year.

At the same time, fraudsters used overseas cards to steal nearly $25 million through CNP transactions locally, up from $16.5 million.

APCA chief executive Chris Hamilton said credit and charge fraud now cost 50.2 cents in every $1000 of payments transacted, up from 38.6 cents previously. 

Debit card fraud increased only slightly, from 7.1 cents to 7.4 cents in every $1000 transacted, reflecting the greater security of Eftpos and ATM networks.
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