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The statistics are frightening, in 2007 card fraud losses rose by 25% - to £535.2m - partly driven by an increase in stolen UK card details being used overseas and by an increase in phone, internet and mail order fraud.

The reason for the trend is simple. The introduction of chip cards has driven card criminals away from shops, where a PIN is required, into cyberspace, where that precaution can’t be used.

Online retailers are reacting to the threat and many sites now feature additional levels of security such as Verified by Visa and MasterCard SecureCode.

These safeguards help prevent thieves from being able to spend other peoples money, if they somehow manage to steal card or account details, at more than 50,000 sites. Many established brands have signed up to these services including Comet, Eurostar, John Lewis and Tesco.

How they work
The best way to add this new layer of protection to a card is to log on to www.visaeurope.com and search for Verified by Visa or www.mastercard.co.uk and look for MasterCard SecureCode. Both sites include a list of banks that offer the services and an explanation of the sign-up process.

In both cases, a unique password or code is created that is stored securely by the bank or other organisation that issued the card. When consumers go through a participating site’s payment process, an additional level of authentication is added. They are directed to their card issuer’s site and required to enter the unique password or code, provided this matches the card issuer’s database the purchase is authorised.

Other precautions
There are other precautions individuals can take to keep their information safe online. Here are a number of tips that will help...

You can see your Experian credit report free with a trial of CreditExpert, the UK’s leading credit monitoring and ID fraud protection service.