Official statistics shows Australian online card fraud up 20% in 2008
New official statistics show online fraud perpetrated on Australian issue credit and charge cards was significantly higher in 2008.
Overall credit and charge card fraud increased to a rate of 53.2cents in every $1000, up from 44.7cents in 2007.
Most of this is believed to involve online credit-card fraud.
A statement issued by the Australian Payments Clearing Association (APCA) along with the statistics clearly points the finger of blame online.
"The increases in Australia's credit and charge card fraud were driven by increases in Card-not-present fraud and Counterfeit/Skimming,
which continued to trend upward in 2008" said the statement.
Indeed, the statistics show that of the total $144.7million in fraudulent credit and charge card transactions during 2008,
just under half ($71.6million) was the result of card-not-present (i.e. phone and internet) transactions.
Counterfeit/skimmed credit and charge card transactions totalled a further $49.9million during the year.
However the statistics also show that much of the credit and charge card fraud afflicting Australian issued cards was perpetrated overseas.
In fact only around a third of the credit and charge card fraud on Internet and phone transactions was carried out in Australia.
Only $26.1million of the total $77.1million card-not-present credit and card charge fraud was recorded in Australia.
The remaining $45.5million was perpetrated overseas.
Similarly, only $21.1million of the total $49.9million counterfeit/skimming fraud was recorded in Australia. The majority, or
some $28.8million was recorded overseas.
The average value of credit and charge card fraud on Australian issued cards in 2008 was $355.
Credit and charge card fraud accounted for the overwhelming majority of fraud affecting Australian issued payment instruments last year.
Of the total $173.7million value of the fraudulent transactions, some 144.7million was accounted for by credit and charge cards.
Fraud on cheques and debit cards was much less of a problem, totalling only $14.3million and 14.6million respectively in 2008.
APCA CEO, Chris Hamilton, said that the industry is taking steps to address the problem by implementing initiatives such as the
Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCIDSS).
And he said that banks and card companies are helping by giving online consumers additional security passwords under
MasterCard's SecureCode and Visa's Verified by Visa.
For more information go to:
www.apca.com.au
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