Credit card customers ''still need to be wary about fraud''

While chip and pin technology has reduced credit card fraud in the UK, consumers still need to remember that fraudsters are still out there, an industry expert has warned.

Neil Munroe, external affairs director at consultancy Equifax, explained that chip and pin technology had helped to reduce credit card fraud.

However, he stressed that criminals had not disappeared as a result of the new technology and consumers needed to be aware that fraudsters were still trying to develop ways to steal money.

"What [criminals] have done is they have found a weak point and what they have done increasingly is that they started to exploit what is commonly known as the ''card not present'' route," Mr Munroe said.

"The ''card not present'' [technique] is where somebody may well take your card information and persuade a retailer or a merchant to handle a transaction over the phone to buy goods."

The expert added that it was also possible for criminals to use the credit card details of UK consumers aboard, where "pin systems are not in place".

Recently, the UK''s payment association, Apacs, reported a drastic rise in phishing incidents in the first quarter of 2008.

Sandra Quinn, director of communications at the organisation, said at the time that fraudsters "clearly aren''t giving up".