.
SYDNEY (Sydney Morning Herald), October 7, 2008

By Conrad Walters and Nick Galvin

Australians lost more than half a billion dollars in credit card fraud last year, and security experts warn that banks are not doing enough to protect customers online and are playing down the problem for fear of harming their reputations.

Last year 383,300 people lost an average of $1600 to credit card fraud, says the Bureau of Statistics, which acknowledges the true figure is much higher.

This is because the bureau's survey into personal fraud - the first of its kind - recorded only an individual's most recent loss, but one-third of victims admitted they had been bilked two or more times.

Further losses were suffered by 124,000 victims of identity theft and 57,800 people defrauded by "phishing" - online scams that collect personal details.

A frustrating lesson in what can go wrong … Katrina Ryan says it took nearly two months for her money to be returned after she fell victim to online thieves.
Photo: Steven Siewert

An investigation has found hackers, computer security experts and law enforcement authorities agree that online crimes involving credit cards and other transactions are easy to commit, hard to track and that criminals quickly circumvent new security measures.

In spite of this, bank customers are given little information about the severity of the problem.

Click to read more

Copyright © 2008 Fairfax Digital