FICO Fraud Map

Data breaches are pushing UK fraud losses to a record £671 million according to research by analytics software firm, FICO (www.fico.com).

According to FICO’s annual interactive European Fraud Map (www.fico.com/europeanfraud),  the UK’s card fraud losses were the biggest in Europe, and account for nearly half of the €1,616 million (approximately £1,400 million) lost to fraud across the 19 countries across the map.  This development comes just a year after the UK managed to cut fraud losses by 8%.

“The threat of fraud in the UK has been persistent and growing extensively over the past seven years,” says Matt Cox, vice president for fraud management solutions in Europe at FICO.  “The sheer volume of attempted fraud has meant that, although more fraud is being prevented now than ever before, and that it’s being caught earlier in the attack cycle, the total value lost is still on the rise.”

“Personal information lost in high-profile data breaches means it’s easier than ever for criminals to impersonate individuals and businesses, so we all need to be more vigilant – personally, and as an industry.  We’re seeing the continued growth and diversification of social engineering fraud, which uses techniques like vishing, phishing and whaling,” continues Cox.

“The key to fighting online fraud lies in establishing practices to protect against data compromise.  Drawing on global networks of loss data and confirmed cases of fraud enables businesses to identify and prevent data breaches significantly earlier, reducing the customer losses and operational pressures that often result from these attacks.”