Apacs reveals 132% increase in online banking fraud losses

According to the annual figures regarding online fraud presented by Apacs, the payment association, in 2008 online banking fraud losses in the UK reached £52.5 million, a tremendous 132% increase on the previous year's £22.6 million volume. As phishing incidents continue to increase, online banking customers are increasingly going under the malware attacks. 

Besides the 2008 headline stats figures include an 18% rise in counterfeit card fraud to £169.8 million, a 39% increase in card ID theft to £47.4 million and a 13% growth in card not present fraud to £328.4 million.

The Apacs says that the Met's Police Central e-Crime Unit (PCeU) intends to help seize these losses by coordinating the work of police forces, the National Policing Improvement Agency and other agencies to improve standards of training and the police response to e-crime across the country. 

UK authorities last week set up a new intelligence unit, The Payments Industry and Police Joint Intelligence Unit (PIPJIU) formed from an amalgamation of the banking industry Fraud Intelligence Bureau (FIB), the body that distributed information between the banking industry and law enforcement throughout the UK - and the intelligence section of the DCPCU. Following the launching of the PIPJIU, Apacs has also created a Fraud Intelligence Sharing System (FISS) that will enable banks to share fraud information in a central database. 

As Apacs stated: "Although card fraud losses have increased, losses as a percentage of plastic card turnover amounted to 0.12% in 2008 - equating to around a tenth of a penny lost to fraud in every £1 spent on cards - less than the 0.14% figure in 2004”, reflecting the positive effect of chip and PIN.