FICO: Counterfeit card fraud falls in Europe

FICO, leading provider of analytics and decision management technology, released its analysis of data showing that major shifts have occurred in European card fraud patterns. Analysis done on 55 million active credit cards represented in the FICO Falcon Fraud Consortium for Europe showed that counterfeit fraud fell 60 percent between March 2009 and March 2011.

FICO’s data also shows that card-not-present fraud accounted for 69 percent of all accounts victimized by fraud and 72 percent of all fraud losses. The top 10 merchant categories accounted for 30 percent of the total fraud losses, led by hotels/lodging, travel agencies and ATMs.

“Our analysis of the data shines a spotlight on the tremendous change that has occurred in Europe's fraud landscape,” says Martin Warwick, FICO’s fraud chief in Europe, the Middle East and Africa. “Chip and PIN technology has radically driven down counterfeit and other forms of ‘card present’ fraud in the U.K., which just three years ago accounted for some 60 percent of Europe’s credit card fraud. In response, criminals are operating across borders, targeting countries such as Germany that have weaker detection and prevention capabilities, and shifting their attention to card-not-present schemes such as online fraud.”

FICO’s data comes from card issuers in Germany, the U.K., Ireland, the Netherlands, Poland, Switzerland and Turkey.