By Agency reporter

Friday, 21 Jan 2011

LONDON: Brighton is apparently now the worst place in Britain for credit and debit card fraud, knocking London off the top spot.

Credit and debit card fraud costs the United Kingdom £440m a year

According to Sky News on Thursday, the tourist hotspot has leapt to top of the league from 10th place last year in an annual study by life assistance company CCP.

The report found that 38 per cent of people in Brighton said their details had been used by fraudsters at some point.

London came second with 34 per cent, while Manchester was third with 33 per cent.

There were also above-average instances of people falling victim to card fraud in Leeds, Bristol, Edinburgh and Southampton.

The CPP Card Fraud Index estimates that around 13 million Brits have now been affected by card fraud. Brighton is one of Britain’s tourist hotspots

Around 28 per cent of people said their credit or debit card had been used by fraudsters at some point, seven per cent of whom had been victims during the past 12 months.

But there is some positve news – the number of people affected during 2010 was slightly down on the 10 per cent who were victims in 2009.

Sarah Blaney, card fraud expert at CPP, said, “In 2010 we saw a three decrease in card fraud incidents in the UK compared to the previous year.

“This in itself is good news and shows how progress is being made to reduce the number of victims. In particular, online fraud has decreased, which could be a result of industry initiatives such as Verified by Visa and MasterCard SecureCode.

“However, with card fraud costing the UK £440m a year, consumers still need to remain vigilant and not let their guard down.” One in five had their cards cloned at chip and pin machines or ATMs.

Victims of card fraud reported the average amount stolen was £417 with four per cent claiming losses of more than £2,000.

One in five people said they have had the magnetic strip on their card cloned at an ATM or chip and pin machine.

The same proportion said fraudsters had obtained their card details through the internet.

As many as a third of people said they did not even realise they had been the victims of fraud until they were contacted by their bank or their card was refused.

Source: Punch