Shoppers hit with over €12m in debit and credit card fraud in first half of 2020

Online retail sales continue to increase, jumping 13% in the last month, according to the CSO. File picture.

Debit and credit card fraud losses amounted to €12.2m in the first half of 2020, according to Banking and Payments Federation Ireland (BPFI). In the same time period, there were more than 143,000 fraudulent payment card transactions recorded in the country.

It comes as changes in shopping behaviour, brought about by Covid-19 and the subsequent lockdowns, saw in-store card fraud transactions drop by 52% but online card fraud rise by 21%.