Credit and debit card fraud soared to a record £609.9 million last year as criminals found ways of bypassing the chip-and-PIN system, it emerged today.

Figures from Apacs, the Association for Payment Clearing Services, show that losses on cards rose by 14 per cent last year, equivalent to £10 for everyone in Britain.

There has also been an alarming 132 per cent jump in online banking fraud, with losses of £52.5 million last year compared to £22.6 million in 2007.

Neil Munroe, of Equifax, the credit reference agency, said: “It is perhaps not surprising to see such a big rise in online banking fraud year on year, simply because of the enormous increase in online shopping activity as a whole. But these new figures do seem to suggest that consumers are adopting the online culture without necessarily recognising the risks."

Phishing attacks, under which fraudsters try to trick consumers into revealing their account details, continued to rise.

Online banking customers are also increasingly being targeted by malware (malicious software) capable of monitoring computer activity, potentially capturing security details, such as user names and passwords. The criminals send out e-mails at random to get people to click on a link and visit a website that installs the virus.

Apacs said the main areas of card fraud were transactions which did not require chip-and-PIN.

The theft of card details, which are then used to buy products over the phone, via mail order or over the internet - known as "card-not-present fraud" - continues to top the table of losses, soaring by 13 per cent to £328.4 million last year.

Consumers duped by counterfeiters, who illegally clone or skim cards, lost £169.8 million, a rise of 18 per cent. Apacs claims that most of this fraud is due to criminals stealing card details in the UK to make counterfeit magnetic-strip cards for use in countries yet to upgrade to chip-and-PIN, including the US.

Card ID theft, which typically involves a criminal stealing a genuine card and PIN, increased by 39 per cent to £47.4 million.