Australians lost $521m to card fraud in 2016 financial year

Australians lost $521 million to card fraud in the 2016 financial year, figures from the Australian Payments Clearing Association (APCA) have shown.

Australians spent a total of $703 billion over that period, meaning 0.07 per cent of the total, or 74.2 cents per $1,000 spent was fraudulent.

That was a rise from 60.4 cents per $1,000 spent in the year prior. The APCA said the rise in card fraud was driven by card-not-present (CNP) fraud, when card details are stolen and then used to make payments without the card, usually online.

"Increasing CNP fraud reflects the growth in e-commerce and a global trend in online fraud and cybercrime in general," APCA Chief Executive of APCA Leila Fourie said in a statement.

"We have been successful in reducing counterfeit and skimming fraud at point-of-sale terminals in Australia with chip technology. "By using the online authentication and fraud detection technologies available, we can do the same in the CNP space."

CNP fraud increased from $323 million to $402 million over the 12 month period to 30 June 2016, and accounted for 77 per cent of all fraud on Australian cards.

APCA said the industry is continuing to roll-out measures against fraud including improved cardholder authentication through one-time passwords and biometrics, reduced exposure of card data through tokenisation, and fraud identification and prevention in real-time. The association said consumers can protect themselves by only providing card details on secure websites and keeping PC security software up to date. APCA said fraudulent transactions on payment cards are reimbursed by banks as long as the consumer has taken due care.

Discuss current APAC fraud activities and how to ensure you have proactive defence against the rising threat of fraud at the 6th Annual Australian Fraud Summit being held in Sydney on the 6-8 June 2017.

Written by: Nicolas Verbeeck

Nicolas was born in Belgium and became an expert in consuming excellent beers, chocolate and waffles. During the winter period you can find him on a hockey pitch and in summer he loves to go for a swim or a surf. In 2013 Nicolas was wondering what the beers, chocolate and waffles would taste like in Australia and never came back. One reason… the weather. Nicolas obtained a masters in International Politics and tries to use this background to produce excellent conferences at Akolade.