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Date Published : Thursday, December 27, 2007
One of the country's leading voices in the financial sector has issued a call for businesses and individuals to exercise vigilance when conducting transactions via credit card.
The Australian Payments Clearing Association (Apca) made the recommendation in its latest report on payment fraud. Covering the 12 months to June 30th, the report is the third issued by the regulatory body.
Encouragingly, the statistics reveal a downward trend in the amount of money which businesses and individuals lose as a result of fraud. Over the three periods examined, fraud rates have declined each time. In 2006-07, the rate fell to 5.9 cents in every $1,000 - compared to 6.8 cents per $1,000 in 2005-06.
In terms of fraud related to credit card payments, the rate fell from 38.9 cents to 38.6 cents per $1,000 over the period.
However, the overall proportion of transactions that were subject to fraud was found to be on the rise. Fraud affecting credit cards reached 16.7 transactions per 100,000, up from 14.8 per 100,000 in the previous year.
Commenting on the figures, Chris Hamilton, chief executive at Apca, said that fraud affects everyone, whether it be the inconvenience caused to individuals or the monetary losses borne by financial institutions.
"Despite Australia's relatively good performance in fraud prevention, there is a need for continued vigilance by financial institutions and their customers," he explained.
According to the Australian Federal Police, approximately 100,000 credit card transactions take place each day in the country, either legitimately or fraudulently.
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