Credit card fraud higher here than in rest of Europe

CREDIT CARD fraud is up between 10 and 20% despite a drop in the number of credit card transactions from €69 million in 2000 to €63 million last year.

Spokesman for the Irish Bankers Federation (IBF) Felix O’Regan confirmed plastic fraud was on the increase, costing the country’s leading banks an average €5 million a year for the past three years. However he refused to put an exact figure on losses for individual years between 1999-2001.

Figures supplied by the IBF on credit cards issued by AIB, Bank of Ireland, Permanent TSB, NIB and Ulster Bank show that out of a €5.7 billion credit card turnover last year, credit card fraud cost less than 0.1%. This was still above the EU average of 0.07%.