The fraud results released by APACS are generally as expected in the industry, with steady increases in card-not-present (CNP) and counterfeit card fraud, however there are a few numbers that raise questions. The first of these is with UK retailer (face-to-face) transactions, where fraud has increased by 26 percent since the same period in 2007. These numbers are still down from 2005, but it is interesting to note that following a steady downward trend for the first few years this has now started to increase. This trend can also be seen in ATM fraud, which is up 22 percent since the same time last year.

The increase in online banking fraud is possibly easier to explain, as it ties in with the increased phishing activity we saw in the UK in the run up to the Faster Payments launch. However, banks in the UK are starting to use increasingly sophisticated methods to counter the threat of online banking fraud. One method is monitoring the IP address that is being used to log onto online bank accounts and comparing it to both known suspect addresses and the customer's own usual pattern of activity, which can help identify fraud immediately. With such anti-fraud methods in place, I feel confident that we will see these numbers start to decrease in the future.

These tools can also be used to help manage CNP fraud levels - by mandating that IP data is included in the transaction information, banks will be able to stop fraudulent transactions before they happen, especially if IP data is combined with two-factor authentication methods.

The APACS figures are a very useful measure of the amount of fraud we are seeing on UK-issued cards, and will hopefully reiterate to banks, consumers and retailers the importance of fraud prevention and detection. The percentage of fraud is still low compared to the actual amount of money spent on cards or through online banking, however, the whole industry needs to work together to ensure it remains this way.