It is believed that thought credit and debit card fraud almost £535 million has been lost. This is the first rise in card fraud for three years and The Association of Payment Clearing Services (Apacs) blames it on stolen and counterfeit cards being used abroad. Overseas card fraud rose by 77% last year to £208m, making it 39% of the total number of cases of card fraud.

This drastic increase in the cases of fraud comes at a time when lines of credit are becoming increasingly sparse and people are turning towards secured loans for borrowing needs.

Apacs, a banking group against card fraud said: "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."