2010 cardholder-not-present fraud down by 10% to £239 million

According to the international fraud prevention firm, it's not that fraudsters are cutting back, it's just getting more challenging for them to get through retailers' sophisticated fraud prevention techniques.

The report also notes that attempted fraud last year was four times higher than the number of successful fraudulent transactions.

Delving into the report reveals that, where previously the top hotspots for card fraud were in East and South East London boroughs, criminals are starting to use different addresses in less suspicious locations, such as West and South West London postcodes.

In addition, where before the fraudsters used general email providers such as Gmail and Hotmail for their contact email addresses, Retail Decisions says that fraudsters are now setting up their own domains for their various activities.

And in the period before Christmas, the report notes that 5.2% of attempts to buy an Apple iPad over the phone or online were made by a potential fraudster.

So where are things going with card fraud?

According to Retail Decisions, its researchers are predicting a further 5% reduction in cardholder-not-present fraud in the year ahead, but the bad news is that levels are likely to bounce back in 2012.

"Just as the Beijing Olympics saw online fraud rocket in China, we expect that London 2012 will have a similar impact, increasing CNP fraud in the UK", says the firm.

The fraud prevention firm also claims that cardholder-not-present fraud now accounts for 50% of plastic card fraud losses, compared with around 10% in 1998, when overall fraud totalled just over £100 million.

Retail Decisions notes that there is a rising danger in the 'one size fits all' anti-fraud systems being deployed by banks, as one merchant's crime-proof fence will be another retailer's customer failure – and disgruntled potential shopper, who will buy elsewhere.

Without finely tuned security, says the firm, what money is saved in foiled fraud is then lost to rejected revenue.

Carl Clump, the firm's CEO, said that retailers need to stay one step ahead of the invisible, and increasingly inventive, criminals.

"Fraudsters are continually adapting to overcome fraud prevention techniques and they communicate constantly in the criminal underworld to share scams", he said.

This means, he explained, that retailers need a fraud prevention strategy that not just keeps pace, but is one step ahead of the fraudsters.

To be truly effective, he says, an anti-fraud system needs to be able to spot trends as they are emerging, and not just identify them once they are active.

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