Credit Card Fraud

Lloyds TSB is stepping up the fight against card fraud, becoming the first UK bank to introduce automated telephone alerts to warn customers of suspicious transactions on their current accounts.

As 2007 gets underway, a new report from Morgan Stanley Consumer Banking has found that millions of Britons are leaving themselves open to fraudsters.

One in five people in the UK (20%, or 8.8 million) admit to reading their confidential financial information out over the phone whilst at work, leaving themselves open to fraud according to research by PayPal, the online payment provider.

Christmas is a popular time for buying computers, but Sainsbury’s Bank estimates that as many as 32% of computers discarded this festive season, to make way for new ones, will not have their hard drives wiped clean or destroyed.

Research shows 43 per cent of credit cards don’t offer Purchase Protection, however American Express provides Purchase Protection and Online Fraud Protection on all Credit and Charge Cards.

Christmas may be a time of giving, but that doesn’t mean you need to give your identity to fraudsters, CreditExpert.co.uk advises. Increased spending, socialising and travelling during the festive season means that people’s guards are down and the opportunities for thieves to steal their identities are increased.

With debit and credit card spending set for a year on year rise of 11.6 per cent during December, online credit report service MyCallcredit is warning people to look after their plastic this Christmas.

To coincide with the busiest online shopping weeks of the year (9th and 16th December), APACS, the UK payments association is launching a fraud awareness campaign to promote the online security systems provided by Visa and MasterCard.