Online bank card fraud jumped in Q4 2017

Bank card abuses related to online purchases or postal and telephone-based orders were up in number by 75% at 9,563, with related damages rising 73.8% annually to HUF 284 million, the MNB report said.

The MNB said that in the last quarter of 2017 there were 12,000 bank card frauds involving domestically issued cards, causing a total of HUF 378 mln in damages. At the same time, the central bank noted that banking security still improved in relative terms as the number of transactions made with bank cards rose at a far quicker pace.

Losses incurred through the use of stolen or fake cards for physical or online purchases were down 10% at HUF 13.8 mln, even as the number of bank card thefts jumped 60% annually to 1,091 in Q4.

Fake bank cards became rarer as the number of fraudulent cases involving such cards dropped 20% to 1,337, but damages were still above HUF 50 mln, the MTI report noted.

Contactless card use rising

The number of contactless cards issued in Hungary rose 41% in the first quarter of 2018 compared to the corresponding period a year earlier, with contactless transaction numbers increasing at a similar rate, the MNB said in a quarterly report published on Friday, cited in a separate report by MTI.

As a result, 74% of all domestic issued cards were contactless by Q1 2018, as against 66% one year earlier.

The number of bank cards overall edged up 1% from a year earlier to 9.01 mln, but was down from a peak of 9.12 mln at the end of 2017. Around 86% of cards were debit cards.

In Q1, consumers made 166.6 mln domestic purchases using bank cards, 24.3% more than in the base period. Cash withdrawal numbers edged down 0.2% annually to 24.67 mln.