The amount of fraud being committed on plastic cards fell by 23 per cent, to £232.8 million, when compared to last year.

However Financial Fraud Action UK urged consumers to still be careful with their cards, warning that despite losses for mail, internet and phone payments falling, internet banking fraud was up 55 per cent on last year.

Experts have said fraudsters may have turned to targeting foreign-issued cards.

Katy Worobec, head of fraud control, said: "Although it’s difficult to prove, we think that one of the reasons for this dip in card losses may simply be as a result of fraudsters realising that they can prosper more by targeting foreign-issued cards – particularly those without chip and PIN protection and which currently have stronger currencies than sterling.

"The fact that we’ve seen a 36 per cent increase in the first half of this year in the amount of fraud being committed on foreign issued cards here in the UK adds some weight to this theory."

Financial Fraud Action said there was the first ever fall in card-not-present fraud losses in the first half of this year, with cheque fraud losses down 26 per cent.

The industry body said: "The fraud to turnover rate on debit and credit cards amounted to 0.1 per cent in the first half of the year – reflecting the fact that only around a tenth of a penny is lost to fraud in every £1 spent on cards."

It added that Chip and PIN had undoubtedly continued to make it difficult for fraudsters to commit fraud, and the increasing use of sophisticated fraud screening detection tools by retailers and banks, as well as the continuing growth in the use of MasterCard SecureCode and Verified by Visa, was also having an effect.

Rumina Hassam, personal finance expert at uSwitch.com, commented: "Today’s figures, which indicate an overall drop in card fraud, are great news for both the industry and consumers. However, card ID theft has actually increased by 23 per cent which means consumers should do everything they can to protect themselves and make sure they do not play into the hands of criminals.

"The most effective way of monitoring the status of credit card accounts is to keep a close eye on credit reports."

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