Online retailers count cost of internet fraudsters

Being an online retailer is now synonymous with being ripped off by credit and debit card fraudsters, according to new research.

Debit and credit card fraud carried out over the internet or by phone is setting UK retailers back £96m.

More than 97 per cent of online retailers claim to be the victims of fraud in cases where the card is not present, according to research from customer relationship management solution firm, Experian.

It can take up to four weeks for an e-tailer to become aware that a payment has been made with a lost or stolen card and of those cases, 48 per cent of fraudsters commit another payment crime on the same site.

Despite these figures, less than five per cent of e-tailers' IT budgets are being invested in online security to combat the problem.

A rather worrying 28 per cent of online retailers still rely on manual checks to find fraudulent payments that have already been processed on the website.