Britons expose themselves to fraudsters

Thursday, November 3, 2005

Almost two thirds of Britain's credit card users and current account holders are leaving themselves open to fraud, new research has revealed.

The survey carried out by Which? revealed that 60 per cent of British customers with current accounts or credit cards are "making it easy" for fraudsters, costing the cardholder around £12 a year.

Just under a quarter of the 1,624 people questioned by Which? revealed that they used the same pin for multiple accounts.

A fifth of people surveyed said they would give their account details to someone who called them and claimed to be from the bank, and 19 per cent say that they don't check their bank statements regularly.

"By taking some basic precautions you can dramatically reduce your chances of becoming a victim of card fraud," said Malcolm Coles, editor of Which?

"But banks themselves are falling down on security too. They should be doing much more to cut this type of crime, rather than just passing the costs on to their customers."

The Which? survey revealed that in the last year, six per cent of current account holders and five per cent of credit card holders had been victims of fraud.

Cardwatch says that between 2003 and 2004, the value of credit card fraud grew by 20 per cent to £504.8 million.
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