According to the findings released by Financial Fraud Action UK, online banking fraud losses have dropped by 24 percent from GBP 46.6 million in 2010 to GBP 35.4 million in 2011. Factors contributing to this fall include: customers protecting their own computers with up-to-date anti-virus software; banks’ use of fraud detection systems as well as providing customers with additional software and hand-held devices to log on to internet banking. This decrease has occurred despite a continuing rise in phishing attacks and attacks involving malware. Phishing attacks are up 80 percent from 2010.
Card identity theft losses have dropped by 41 percent year-on-year while fraud from skimmed or cloned cards has decreased by 24 percent. Fraud on lost or stolen credit and debit cards has jumped by 13 percent and fraud from cards going missing in the mail has increased by 34 percent year-on-year. Furthermore, UK cash machine fraud has dropped by 12 percent to GBP 29.3 million.
The findings have indicated that telephone banking fraud losses have seen a 32 percent increase from GBP 12.7 million in 2010 to GBP 16.7 million in 2011. Most losses involve customers being deceived by criminals, using fake emails or cold calling, into disclosing their personal security details such as telephone banking passcodes. These details are then used to commit fraud.
As far as cheque fraud losses are concerned, they have registered a 17 percent increase, from GBP 29.3 million in 2010 to GBP 34.3 million during 2011. This rise is determined by an increase in fraudsters stealing genuine cheques and altering the payee name or using details from genuine cheques to create counterfeits. However, over 90 percent of attempted cheque fraud gets stopped before the cheque is paid.
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