According to new figures from the UK Home Office's identity fraud steering committee, identity fraud cost the British economy GBP1.7 billion in 2005, with a third coming from payment card-related fraud.
According to a report by trade journal Cardline, the committee’s review found that cloned cards cost card issuers a total of GBP129.7 million in fraud losses last year, while GBP114.4 million was lost due to the use of lost or stolen cards.
Card-not-present fraud is also a significant problem for the payments industry. In 2005 GBP150.8 million was lost from fraudulent internet transactions alone.
The parliamentary committee estimates that identity fraud now affects more than 100,000 people in the UK each year, Cardline’s report adds.
The committee’s warning follows hot on the heels of a number of high profile payment industry security breaches by fraudsters. Most notable was the recent GBP1 million fraud perpetrated against Shell and its customers.
In an embarrassing blow to the payments industry, Shell removed its state-of-the-art Chip and PIN payment equipment from operation after thieves were able to steal account details using corrupted keypad terminals.