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France joins other European regulators in warning that internet payment fraud reductions are outweighed by a rise in new forms of cybercrimes that legislation has yet to protect against.
After three years of growth, the 2021 card payment fraud rate fell sharply in France to 0.059 percent of total transactions.
According to the Observatory for the Security of Payment Means (OSMP), which was established by the Banque de France, these improving results are partly due to the maintaining of a high level of fraud control at the point of sale.
Point of sale fraud came to just 0.011 percent of total transactions, significantly below online payment fraud, which despite falling 20 percent, was 18 times higher at 0.196 percent.
Across all payment types in France, fraud accounted for €1.24bn, or 0.003 percent, of total payments, down 4.2 percent on the previous year.
This, the OSMP said, can be put down to the rollout of strong customer authentication (SCA) during 2021.
Yet, despite these good results, the OSMP has said that threats to the country’s payment system are changing.
“In particular, the concomitant development of fraud techniques by manipulating customers and increasingly sophisticated identity theft campaigns,” the report warns.
To combat this, the OSMP recommends use of secure digital identity solutions that would make it possible to reinforce the level of confidence during online activities.
This is especially the case for certain sensitive operations related to payments, such as the opening of a customer account, change of telephone and/or bank details.
Cheques, according to the OSMP, remain the payment method most defrauded in the country, yet the outlook is optimistic due to improving fraud prevention systems in banks.
Meanwhile, SEPA credit transfers and direct debits remain the least fraudulent payment instruments, with a fraud rate of around 0.001 percent.
