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9% Down – UK Tackles Online Payment Fraud Head On

Posted by | September 6, 2010 .

9% Down – UK Tackles Online Payment Fraud Head On

PR Newswire — September 6, 2010

LONDON, September 6, 2010 /PRNewswire/ — Shopping online has never been more secure for UK consumers, thanks to strategies put in place by retailers to beat card crime, according to Retail Decisions (ReD), the international payment fraud prevention group.

ReD forecasts that there will be fewer attempts by criminals to fraudulently buy items from websites, by mail order or by phone in the UK this year, compared with 2009. Thieves with a hot piece of cloned or stolen plastic in their hand prefer to use it invisibly, where a card doesn’t have to be physically handed over. These card-not-present (CNP) channels are constantly under threat from scammers. But more fraud is being foiled says ReD, who reports that card-not-present fraud could reach an estimated value of GBP242 million by the end of 2010. This is around 9% less than the total last year, when CNP fraud was valued at GBP266 million, according to ReD’s figures.

The prediction is based on figures for the first six months of 2010 which show that CNP fraud reached an estimated GBP122 million, a reduction of approximately 9% compared with the first six months of 2009 when CNP fraud losses totalled GBP134 million(1).

This is great news for UK shoppers. It means they can be increasingly confident about security when shopping on the internet, and take advantage of exclusive online offers. Consumers are clearly becoming more accustomed to requests for security information online and over the phone, knowing to keep their eyes peeled for the https web address and security padlock at the bottom of the page, so that they are able to protect themselves.

Carl Clump, CEO of ReD, says: “If merchants in the UK are not seeing a reduction in their fraud levels, they should be reviewing their fraud prevention tactics. Many UK retailers have already benefited from using the latest fraud prevention technologies and techniques to protect themselves and their customers, and this is reflected by payment fraudsters being deterred from targeting them. In support of this, consumers are becoming wiser to the tactics. However, these criminals are persistent and continually develop new methods to defraud merchants. In fact, the current picture in the UK is not a cause for complacency. In the larger US market we estimate a 32% increase in attempted CNP fraud this year.”

The improved situation in the UK is attributed not just to increasingly sophisticated fraud prevention technology thwarting more scams, but also to UK consumers becoming more aware of fraudsters’ tactics, and so better at protecting themselves. People are now increasingly security savvy and conscious of the common tricks criminals use to try and get card details, such as phishing – when an email that appears to be from a genuine company asks for a customer’s account details – or invasive Trojan links, which once clicked on means the fraudster can monitor keyboard strokes and discover important, personal information such as passwords.

Despite this encouraging news it’s essential that consumers stay vigilant, because despite the predicted fall in CNP fraud in the UK, ReD’s projections show that criminals are trying to maximise returns by targeting higher value items.

Carl Clump comments: “Our figures show that the average transaction value of fraud for the first six months of this year was GBP76. This is a 24% increase over the same time period last year, when this figure was much lower at GBP61.”

ReD is urging customers to remain alert.

Notes for editors:

About ReD

Retail Decisions (ReD) is a world leader in card fraud prevention and payment processing. ReD has over 20 years experience in the fraud prevention arena. Its blue-chip international clients come from the global telecommunications, retail, travel, petroleum, banking and the broader e-commerce sectors.

1) UK Payments Administration 2009

More information about ReD please visit: http://www.redplc.com

Subject Codes: PC/t.100906090228592, PR/dest.Public, PT/lang.en, IN/FIN, IN/ECM, IN/REA, IN/HTS, SU/SVY, RE/United_Kingdom

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