What the media says about me...
"A stroppy Labour MP"Simon Hoggart Parlaimentary Sketch, The Guardian, October 2004
| Financial Fraud |
 |
 |
 |
| Wednesday, 07 October 2009 11:35 |
|
Local MP, Gordon Prentice, has welcomed the latest figures from Financial Fraud Action, released today, which show that:
Card fraud losses in the first half of the year decreased by 23% to £232.8m
The MP was a victim of a scam last year when over £3,000 was taken from his Co-op Credit Card.
Speaking from his office in Nelson today, the MP commented: “These frauds are still huge although it is of some comfort, I suppose, that progress is being made on some fronts. However, on-line fraud is up by a mile.”
“In 2008, over £3,000 was taken from my Co-op credit card account which the bank subsequently paid back after it had satisfied itself I was not to blame.”
“I told the Bank where I believe my card had been skimmed but they refused to tell me if they tracked down the people responsible and prosecuted them.”
“Why on earth they cannot do this beats me.”
Note to Editors: (Information below is from Financial Fraud Action) The Dedicated Cheque and Plastic Crime Unit (DCPCU) - the special police unit sponsored by the banking industry to stamp out organised card and cheque fraud across the UK – has certainly played its part in the encouraging fall in card fraud. In the first half of the year, conservative estimated savings to the industry as a result of their fraud prevention work amounted to £12.8 million. This is on top of the £315 million in fraud savings to the industry as a result of the Unit’s work since its launch back in 2002. Various other factors have contributed to the fall in the card fraud figures. Chip and PIN has undoubtedly continued to make it more difficult for fraudsters to commit fraud on our cards in the UK and, as a result: losses at UK retailers are down by 26 per cent from the same period last year; mail non-receipt fraud fell by 33 per cent; and lost and stolen card fraud is down by 6 per cent to its lowest level since the industry collation of fraud losses began in 1991. Additionally, the banking industry continues to work closely with the retail community to raise awareness of the ways in which retailerscan protect their chip and PIN terminals from criminal attack. Losses from phone, internet and mail order shopping fraud have fallen for the first time ever and now stand at £134 million. Reasons behind this decrease include the increasing use of sophisticated fraud screening detection tools by retailers and banks, as well as the continuing growth in the use of MasterCard SecureCode and Verified by Visa (online payment systems that make cards more secure when shopping on the internet), by both online retailers and cardholders. There has also been a significant decrease in fraud abroad. One of the factors causing this is the fraud detection systems used by the banks and card companies, which monitor for unusual spending - meaning that potential fraud is stopped before it happens. Online banking fraud losses totalled £39.0 million during the six months to June 2009 – a 55 per cent rise on the 2008 figure. The increase is largely due to criminals employing more sophisticated methods to target online banking customers through malware scams – which target vulnerabilities in customers’ PCs - rather than the banks’ own systems which have proved more difficult for the fraudsters to attack. There were also more than 26,000 phishing incidents during January to June 2009 – a 26 per cent increase on the amount seen in the same period last year. Help and advice about preventing all types of online banking fraud is available at www.banksafeonline.org.uk. See also: |