More people rely on credit card fraud as a means to fight of the credit crunch.

Credit card fraud has risen by 25 per cent, a study by UK payment association, Apacs revealed.

The ongoing tightening of lending conditions with the boost in tax, fuel and food prices has had a great impact in fraudsters.

The UK fraud prevention service Cifas, revealed that fraud cases had leapt by ten per cent in the first three months of the year.

The group stated that the credit crunch had left more people lying on their application forms for loans and credit cards.

Chief executive of Cifas, Peter Hurst, said, “Because people are getting into debt earlier, and because the credit crunch has diminished their access to finance, they are now resorting to fraudulent applications for funds.”

The study, based on the first three months on 2008, revealed that an increase of 13 per cent of people had lied on their application forms compared to 2007.

According to channelweb.co.uk, credit and debit card fraud losses on UK-issued cards increased from £427m in 2006 to £535.2m last year.

In May this year, Watchdog warned that the slowdown of the economy lead to more cases of fraud in the UK.

Hurst said, “These figures demonstrate how, in a time of economic change and uncertainty, patterns in fraudulent activity also change.”

He added that “The increase in application fraud demonstrates that people are getting into debt earlier.”