Recently released figures indicate that one out of every three cardholders have been directly effected by credit card fraud over the past five years.
The number of consumers falling victim to either credit or debit card fraud has increased sharply in the past eighteen months, says payments software provider ACI Worldwide. With upwards of 15 million fraud victims, Brits lead the pack with the most defrauded consumers in the world apart from China, the firm added.
Despite the bad news customers were found to have higher satisfaction ratings with their banking providers in regards to how they dealt with fraud claims. Customers from other countries fared less well than their UK counterparts.
Approximately 4 out of every 5 consumers indicated that they were satisfied with how their bank handled their fraud case. This represents a 5 per cent increase over 2009 satisfaction levels. 40 per cent of consumers stated that the central reason for high satisfaction levels was how quickly their claim was resolved with the swift return of their stolen money.
The current estimated costs of card fraud to the UK economy are approximately £30 billion every year. This figure could increase quite easily as fraudsters continually seek to employ more sophisticated ways to steal card information from their hapless victims.
ACI Worldwide spokesman David Divitt stated that fraud is constantly evolving. The industry needs to increase its focus on the identification of fraud looking forward, he said. Additionally Mr Divitt remarked that in order to maintain improvements to customer experience a focus on victim assistance must be maintained.
The UK Cards Association refuted ACI Worldwide’s claim. A spokesman for the organisation stated that their statistics indicate that card fraud fell 28 per cent in 2009. Figures fell once again by 20 per cent in the first half of 2010 according to the spokesman.