Wednesday, July 13, 2005

Credit card fraud in Northern Ireland

Credit card fraud in Ulster tops £2m

By Jonathan McCambridge, Crime Correspondent
jmccambridge@belfasttelegraph.co.uk

08 July 2005

CREDIT card fraud has cost consumers in Northern Ireland over £2m in just four years, it can be revealed.

However, the public has been warned that the full extent of the level of deception and identity frauds could be substantially higher because the majority of these crimes are never reported to police.

It is believed that the majority of the frauds involve instances of lost or stolen cards or 'skimming' crimes.

Security Minister Shaun Woodward revealed that the PSNI have dealt with 2,136 cases where criminal benefit had been obtained from credit card deceptions since 2002.

In response to a written parliamentary question from Strangford MP Iris Robinson, the Minister revealed that the total gain to criminals was £2,305,061.

He said: "I am assured that the PSNI Cheque and Credit Card Unit is working closely with all relevant agencies and is involved in a number of different initiatives in an effort to combat credit card fraud.

"These figures are based on incidents reported to the police.

"The true figure could be significantly higher as much of this type of crime is not reported directly to the police, but rather financial institutions such as banks."

Strangford MP Iris Robinson said: "It is alarming that already in 2005 almost half a million pounds has been lost through credit card deception in Northern Ireland, which is more than the full-year totals both for 2002 and 2003.

"The figures provided by the Minister of course represent only a fraction of the real total.

"Clearly there is a significant amount of this form of crime occurring in Northern Ireland. The public need to be watchful regarding protection of their personal details."

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