Increases in credit-card fraud confirm the need for increased security for ‘cardholder not present’ (CNP) transactions, according to fraud specialist John McVitie.
The latest unofficial statistics on credit-card fraud were released at the recent annual conference for card issuers.
In the first nine months of 1999, CNP fraud was up 97%. Visa estimates fraud will cost businesses £30m by the end of the year with 15% of that stemming from e-commerce transactions. British Airways estimates 50% of its sales will be via the Internet by 2003 and Thomson estimates 30% by 2005.
By June 1999, 27% of frauds in the European travel industry were CNP sales, said McVitie. “The travel industry needs to be very careful when doing credit-card transactions.”
ABTAhas already warned agents not to rely on authorisations as a way of protecting themselves against chargebacks by credit-card companies following a fraud.
International Conference Management is organising a travel fraud conference on May 4 at the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors in London.
McVitie will chair the meeting, ABTA head of financial services Mike Monk will speak and a police workshop is also planned. Inquiries should go to Laurence Young at ICM, 01271 890 515.
TABLE: Statistics: show credit-card fraud to be on the increase