According to CIFAS, a fraud prevention membership association in the UK, both fraud involving payment cards and identity fraud increased in the first half of 2013 while 82 percent of identity fraud cases occurred online.
According to CIFAS’ Fraudscape Bulletin 2013, identity fraud accounted for 52 percent of all cases of fraud in the first six months of 2013 while account takeover comprised 14 percent in the United Kingdom. These two types of fraud, which both involve the abuse of identity information, collectively represented two-thirds of all fraud in the UK for the first half of 2013. The other two most common fraud types were application fraud, at 18 percent, and misuse of facility fraud, which refers to friendly fraud when the legitimate accountholder misuses their account, at 15 percent of all fraud.
The total number of frauds recorded by CIFAS declined in the first half of 2013 relative to the second half of 2012, but identity fraud increased by one percent. Identity fraud in the mail order channel declined in the first six months of 2013 compared to the final six months of 2012, but identity fraud against bank accounts and plastic cards increased by 33 percent and 23 percent, respectively. Additionally, 82 percent of identity fraud incidences occurred online.
Application fraud, in addition to identity fraud, increased in the first half of 2013, but misuse of facility and account takeover fraud declined relative to the previous half-year ending on the last day of 2012. Account takeover fraud fell 14 percent overall which was primarily with mail order accounts, although account takeover fraud specifically against bank accounts and plastic cards each increased. Total fraud against plastic cards increased 19 percent in the first half of 2013 while 33 percent of account takeover fraud incidences involved unauthorized electronic payment instructions.
For more information: