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Fraud rates for credit and charge cards in Australia increased to 50.2 Australian cents (41 U.S. cents or 30 euro cents) per AU$1,000 of payments for the 12 months ended 30 June, up from 38.6 cents the previous 12-month period, according to the Australian Payments Clearing Association, a group that includes issuers. The fraud rate for debit cards increased to 7.1 cents per AU$1,000 of payments from 7.4 cents. The fraud rate for checks, meanwhile, dropped to 0.8 cents per AU$1,000 of payments from 1.4 cents. Overall, the fraud rate for cards and checks increased to 7.2 cents per AU$1,000 of payments from 5.9 cents, the group says. The most common type of card fraud in Australia occurs for transactions over the phone, Internet, mail or fax. Such card-not-present activity accounts for 48% of the fraud from credit and charge cards, the group says, mirroring trends in the United Kingdom and other countries. Card skimming and counterfeiting account for 32% of fraud on credit and charge cards and for 40% of fraud on debit cards, the group says. "Unfortunately, we are now starting to see a long-anticipated migration of counterfeit and skimming fraud to Australia from offshore," Chris Hamilton, the group's CEO, says in a statement. Stronger data security at point-of-sale terminals and the ongoing effort to put more fraud-resistant chip cards into the hands of consumers could reduce such fraud, the group says. Observers credit such moves with helping reduce fraud in the United Kingdom. "We estimate that within the next two or three years, the vast majority of Australian consumer cards will carry a chip," Hamilton says. "And most processing terminals will be capable of using chip technology." In fact, about 25% of all Visa-branded cards in Australia have chips, and 58% of payment terminals in the country can accept chip cards, a spokesperson for Visa Inc. tells CardLine Global without providing specific figures. Visa recently announced plans to pressure Australian merchants and card issuers to boost card-security measures (CardLine Global, 11 Dec.).
