An increase in online shopping, as the pandemic took hold last year, saw a rise in scams targetting debit and credit cards. Irish consumers lost over €12 million through debit and credit card scams in the first half of last year, according to new figures published by the Banking & Payments Federation Ireland (BPFI).
The data shows that online card fraud was up 21% in the first six months of 2020, reflecting the boost in online shopping during the pandemic.
Meanwhile, in-store card fraud dropped by 52% during this period. A total of 143,000 fraudulent card transactions were detected in between January and May.
Brian Hayes, Chief Executive of the BPFI, said that 72% of these transactions involved the theft of card details. "Fraudsters do this