Fraud on credit and debit cards soared to a record high last year, figures from payments association Apacs show. According to Apacs there was a 25 per cent rise in fraud in 2007, bringing collective losses to £535 million. This is the first time that fraud has increased since 2004 when chip and pin technology was introduced to provide greater security. Apacs said the increase last year was fuelled in the main by a 77 per cent rise in fraudulent use of UK-registered cards overseas. However, there was also a six per cent rise in losses in the UK, which was in turn driven largely by online fraud and in situations when the card is not present. Commenting on the figures, Sandra Quinn of Apacs said: "Although card fraud levels have now begun to go up again due to fraud abroad and card-not-present fraud losses, chip-and-pin has proven to be an undoubted success in reducing card fraud on the UK high street. "And as more countries follow our lead and upgrade to chip-and-pin, the opportunities for criminals to use our stolen magnetic stripe details overseas will decrease."

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