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%.

A spokesman for the Garda Bureau of Fraud Investigation (GBFI) said credit card fraud is well organised and he warned cardholders to be vigilant with their credit card details.

He said to be aware of restaurant and garage ‘skimming’, where card details are downloaded from the card’s magnetic strip before being swiped through the till. “The credit cards can be skimmed here and used abroad one or two days later.

“Our advice to people is not to let their credit cards out of their sight, to tear up credit card receipts and to basically treat credit cards in the same manner as they would treat cash.”

Credit card holders also are warned to conceal credit card details when standing in bank queues because fraudsters may be peering over shoulders and typing credit card numbers into mobile phones.

A spokesman for AIB credit card services said cardholders generally are not liable for credit card fraud unless the card has been used at an ATM machine by someone who knows the Personal Identification Number) or it could be shown the customer was negligent in reporting the fraud.

He said the bank had confidential systems in place to monitor potential fraud and customers are contacted if some untoward transactions occur involving their credit cards.

Meanwhile the Irish Payment Services Organisation (IPSO) is spearheading improvements in the security of payment cards. The new process will see a PIN (Personal Identification Number) keyed in at the point of purchase as an alternative to the current method of signing a receipt. Chip technology will eliminate the possibility of the card being copied. An IPSO spokesman said they are currently in talks with retailers about changing equipment to handle the new technology by 2005.

The number of credit cards on issue has gone up by two million in the last two years, from 1.5 million in 2000 to 1.7 million last year. However the average number of transactions per card is down, from 41.6 in 1999 to 37 last year. The average spend per transaction is up from €78 to €90 in the same period.

Well over half of credit card users clear their bills every month.