Figures published by the Association for Payment Clearing Services (APACS) today show fraud committed using credit and debit cards in the UK grew 20 per cent to £504.8m in 2004.

The organisation says this increase occurred in part because fraudsters intensified their activities prior to the January 2005 chip-and-PIN deadline.

But card-not-present fraud jumped 24 per cent last year to become the biggest fraud type costing £150m, while identity fraud increased 22 per cent and instances of accounts being taken over leapt 59 per cent.

Phishing scams, where customers are duped into disclosing personal security information, made it on to the list for the first time, and according to APACS accounted for a large proportion of the £12m losses attributed to online banking fraud.

Sandra Quinn, APACS corporate communications director said: 'When the banking industry decided to introduce chip and PIN in the UK our fraud forecasts showed that without it card fraud losses would top £800 million by 2005.

'So while we still have a battle on our hands, we are on track to see a significant reduction in this amount.'

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