A new safety campaign aimed at consumers making credit card purchases online has been launched.
The UK payments association Apacs has announced the launch of a new campaign to help consumers stay safe when using their credit cards to shop online. Beginning on October 20th, the Be Card Smart Online campaign is being backed by the banking and retail industries as well as card companies Visa and MasterCard.
Consumers will be offered advice on how to defend themselves against credit card fraudsters during the busy Christmas shopping period and beyond. They will be given tips on how to protect their computer using anti-virus programmes and other software and provided with information on how to spot reputable internet retailers.
Figures released by Apacs show that losses from card-not-present fraud - which covers fraud committed through online, phone and mail order shopping - accounts for 54 percent of all card fraud losses, standing at £161.9 million between January and June 2008.
Sandra Quinn, director of communications at Apacs, said: "Tackling card-not-present fraud continues to be a focus for the banking industry and this advertising campaign will help to raise awareness to cardholders of the simple steps they can take to make life harder for online shopping fraudsters."
The latest fraud data from Apacs was released on October 1st. It revealed that online banking fraud losses totalled £21.4 million during the six months to June 2008. This represents a 185 percent rise on last year's figure.
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