Twelve per cent of Brits have made a note of their PIN and carried it with them or kept it with their card in the last five years. The percentage of people doing so has risen from nine per cent in 2011 to 12 per cent in 2012.

According to research by ACI Worldwide and Aite Group, which involved feedback from more than 5,200 consumers across 17 countries, more Brits admit to breaking the cardinal rule of fraud protection than in The Netherlands (two per cent), France (three per cent), Canada (four per cent), Australia (six per cent), USA (seven per cent), Sweden (nine per cent), Germany (10 per cent) and Singapore (11 per cent). The UK ranks equally with South Africa. Only consumers in the UAE (14 per cent), Italy (17 per cent), China (21 per cent) and India (26 per cent) were identified as being worse offenders.

At the same time, 16 per cent of Brits put bank statements or ATM receipts in the bin – a rise of one per cent since 2011. Meanwhile, eight per cent admitted to using online banking or internet shopping without security software or on a public computer – a fall of two per cent against the previous year’s statistics. This comes at a time when banks are clamping down on refunding fraud losses if it can be shown not enough care was taken by a consumer to protect themselves from fraudsters – for example by using a weak PIN or failing to adequately shield it at a cashpoint. The survey also revealed that 63 per cent of people who have been the victim of credit, debit or pre-paid card fraud during the past five years lost over £100. Of that, 17 per cent have lost between £101 and £200, 22 per cent £201 to £500, 13 per cent £501 to £1,000 and 11 per cent over £1,000.

“It’s a worrying fact that so many people are still carrying their PIN with their cards,” says Mike Braatz, senior vice president, ACI Worldwide. “Consumers can and should be part of the fraud prevention process. The findings help highlight the need for banks and trade bodies to do more to educate consumers about protecting their cards. This includes encouraging measures such as keeping PINs secret, avoiding obvious PINs such as memorable dates, and never letting anyone else use cards and PINs. People should carefully dispose of bank statements, and maintain up-to-date antivirus software when banking and shopping online.”

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