UK sees a decline in online credit fraud

United Kingdom, 14th October: There has been a decline in the online banking fraud in the UK during the last six months, the latest figures by a body of renowned payments industry reveal.

It is certainly some good news as the fall in the online credit fraud has been for the first time since the year 2007.

In the first half of the year 2010, the online fraud went down by 36 percent to reach at £24.9m, stated the UK Cards Association, the representative body of the UK debit and credit card issuers.

And reasons for such a noticeable downfall in the online credit fraud is most probably due to increased awareness of the customers towards the need for getting their computers protected using anti-virus software as well as the fraud detection software being used by banks in the UK.

Nonetheless, the UK Cards Association has cautioned to remain vigilant in the coming times as the losses due to frauds have been quite volatile in the past five years despite the overall decline in the credit fraud in the first half of 2010.

In the UK, there has been a decline of 20 percent in the total fraud losses recorded on the UK cards taking the figures to £186.8m  which happens to be the minimum total for a period of six months for ten years.

Among the measures getting credit for such a tremendous success in terms of fall in the UK online credit fraud include use of Verified by Visa and MasterCard SecureCode along with collaborations with the retail people for increasing awareness of protecting PIN and chip equipment.

Steps for enjoying privileges of your credit card while ensuring safety---

• Don’t give information about your card to anyone whom you don’t trust. This includes avoiding shopping at online stores that fail to protect your identity.

• Be wary of swiping your card in any stores as someone might be prowling at your credit card.

• Do not reply directly to the emails claiming to be coming from your credit card company. The best thing is to call your customer services mentioned at the back of your credit card or visit the official website of your credit card provider.

• Last but not the least is to keep a regular check on your credit card activity. Spare time to access the credit card account to know the recent transactions. If you find anything suspicious, contact immediately the provider of your credit card.