Online credit card fraud to be handled by specialist team

Over recent years a rising number of people have started to go online in order to conduct their financial affairs, using the Internet to do everything from their day to day banking to dealing with their credit card accounts.

In addition to this more and more of us are now shopping online, and this involves putting in credit or debit card details in order to pay for purchases. Whilst this has provided us with convenience and ease it has also increased the risk of fraud.

In fact, with fraudsters becoming more sophisticated, and with credit card fraudsters tending to target the Internet more and more, online credit card fraud has become a big concern.

With this in mind it has recently been announced by the government that a specialist team is being set up to handle online credit card fraud, with the aim of making it safer for consumers to make credit card transactions online.

The measure was proposed by the government after research carried out by the Office of Fair Trading showed that online credit card fraud was costing £3.5 billion a year in the UK. Over the next three years the government will invest £4.3 million in order to try and combat this type of fraud and make the Internet safer for those that use their credit cards online.

The OFT said that the measure could make consumers more confident about making credit card transactions online, stating: “Online consumer protection is a key priority for the OFT. The enforcement team will be looking at the activities of a wide range of commercial websites and taking action in cases where consumers’ rights are being abused.”