Internet shopping is providing rich pickings for conmen, the payments association suggested.
Card fraud increased from January to June as a result of internet fraud, payments association APACS said today.
According to the organisation, fraud losses for debit and credit cards increased to £307 million in the UK - compared to £267 million over the same period last year. This is a 13 percent rise.
The figures were boosted in particular by overseas fraud, which made up 40 percent of the total. Phone, internet and mail order scams were another pressure point, fraud from which rose 18 percent to £162 million.
APACS blamed this trend on the recent rise of chip and PIN technology among retailers, which has caused con artist to search elsewhere for victims. It recommended that consumers protect their computers with anti-virus software, shop through secure websites only and sign up to their card providers' own anti-fraud schemes, such as Verified by Visa and MasterCard's SecureCode.
Sandra Quinn, director of communications at the association, commented: "Criminals continue to target those areas where we do not currently have the security benefits of chip and PIN, causing increases in fraud abroad and phone, internet and mail order shopping fraud. Fraud abroad will be made more difficult for criminals to commit as more countries rollout chip and PIN.
Elsewhere, APSCS found that scams through face-to-face transactions were up 26 percent to £47.4 million, while cash machine fraud put on 22 percent to hit £20.8 million.
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