The criminal classes are proving adaptable to changing times, yesterday’s crime reports disclose.

While homes are more secure through burglar alarms and vehicles bristle with sophisticated security devices, the internet and the wide use of credit cards is providing rich pickings.

Card fraud jumped by a fifth to reach 2.7 million transactions and losses rose by a quarter to £535 million. The payments association, Apac, whose figures were included in the Home Office’s annual crime report for 2007-08, said that the cost of crimes involving counterfeit cards increased by 46 per cent to £144 million. “The increase is driven by a rise in fraud abroad with UK card details stolen for use in countries yet to upgrade to chip and PIN,” the report said.

Separates figures on losses through fraudulent “card not present” cases, such as using stolen card details over the internet, by phone or mail order, show an increase of 37 per cent with losses on cards issued in Britain amounting to £144 million compared with £100 million in 2000. There were more than two million incidents in this category last year - an increase of 58 per cent on the previous year.

“This has been the largest type of card fraud in the UK for the past five years,” the report said. It added: “However, the losses are in the context of large increases in shopping online and over the phone.”

The report said that while “card not present” fraud had trebled between 2000-07, the total value of online shopping had increased by tenfold to £34 billion in the same period. Identity theft, when a criminal uses a fraudulently obtained card or card details, along with personal information to open or take over a card account in another person’s name, rose by more 7 per cent, with total losses of £34 million. The figure is double the losses in 2000.

British Crime Survey figures showed that 4 per cent of card users were aware that they had been a victim of fraud in the previous 12 months - a higher risk that theft from the person. Of the total £535 million losses from plastic fraud, £327 million was in Britain and £207 million abroad. While the increase between 2006 and 2007 in losses on fraud in Britain was 6 per cent, there was a 77 per cent increase in the amount lost overseas.

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