A new survey by APACS has shown that credit card fraud abroad has increased by 25 per cent.

In 2007, £535.2m had been stolen via credit cards. The increase was driven by a 77 per cent jump on fraud where organised criminals used cloned credit cards abroad.

Once criminals have collected credit card data, the cloned cards are then being processed at cash points around the world.

The Association of Payment Clearing Services put together facts and figures; they explained that ‘card not present' fraud has accounted for more than 50 per cent of total losses.

The number of cardholders within the UK which shop online remains high. The success of the chip and Pin system was published in 2005, this eliminated fraud by nearly two-thirds.

Director of communications, Sandra Quinn at Apacs commented: 'Although card fraud levels have now begun to go up again due to fraud abroad and card-not-present fraud losses, chip and Pin has proven to be an undoubted success in reducing card fraud on the UK High Street.’