Hotels must tighten up on procedures to fight rise in credit card fraud

Hoteliers have been urged to be more vigilant in the face of rising "credit card-not-present" (CNP) fraud that is costing the industry £1m a year.

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APACS, which has launched a new initiative aimed at helping retailers combat CNP fraud, warned that hoteliers were ignoring the basic security lessons and the industry needed to do more to stop it from spiralling out of control.

"The problem with CNP fraud is that it's the retailer - such as the hotel operators - who are liable for this fraud, not the card issuers," said APACS spokeswoman Jemma Smith. "If you don't protect your business, you'll end up paying the cost."

Smith urged hotel operators to increase staff awareness and use industry verification systems such as Address Verification Service (AVS) and Card Security Code (CSC). Using the verified by Visa and Mastercard SecureCode services for online payment security could shift liability for fraudulent transactions back to the card issuers, she added.

The total cost of fraud from card-not-present purchases using UK-issued cards has jumped by a third (33%) over the past two years, to £107m a year.

For information on APACS' latest campaign and combating card fraud, go to www.cardwatch.org.uk.