The vast majority - 80% - of Brits think that government and law enforcement agencies only do an average or below average job of fighting card and account fraud, according to the poll of around 300 people.

A notable minority - 16% - say the government is doing a very bad or poor job, and two thirds say ministers are doing an average job. Just a fifth think they are doing a good or excellent job.

In contrast, nine in ten of UK consumers say they have confidence in their financial institution to protect them from card fraud.

Mike Braatz SVP, fraud solutions, ACI Worldwide, says: "It is testament to the way most banks detect and halt fraud that people feel they are in safe hands. Unfortunately, it seems that consumers think the UK government is not doing enough to fight card or account fraud."

However, the UK government is doing better than some of its peers; 55% of Mexicans think their government is doing a very bad or poor job in fighting card or account fraud, 47% of South Africans, 36% of Italians, 33% of Chinese and 26% of Americans.