PLEASANTON, Calif.—Credit card fraud declined to $6.4 billion in 2018 from $8.1 billion in 2017, a new report reveals.
And the reason, the report says, is fraudsters have shifted their focus to account takeover and new account fraud.
While the numbers of account takeover have declined from $5.1 billion to $4 billion, new account fraud rose slightly from $3 billion to $3.4 billion well above levels as recently as 2016, reported Forbes, citing Javelin Strategy & Research data.
“Unlike card fraud, the account fraud can hit consumers directly with financial losses and/or months or years of recovering identities and correcting credit records,” Forbes said.
Fraud has also moved to new areas such as merchant debit cards and prepaid cards, reward programs and takeover of mobile phone accounts—businesses which generally do not have the level of account security that financial institutions have implemented, Forbes noted.