Major increase in card fraud

The growing use of plastic money by Greek consumers for transactions in brick-and-mortar stores or e-commerce is strengthening the appetite of certain people for intercepting card details and embezzling larger amounts.

This is based on figures from the Bank of Greece, according to which the value of card fraud incidents increased by 21% in 2022, from 13.4 million in 2021 to 16.2 million euros. This increase was observed despite the fact that in the same period the number of fraud incidents decreased by approximately 27%, from 392,400 to 287,300.

The reason was the geometric increase in fraud at points such as ATMs and POS, but also the increase in the value of money embezzled in transactions without the physical presence of the card (card not present - CNP transactions), i.e. in internet transactions. In particular, internet fraud in terms of value increased from €12...