Greek card users lost approximately €24 million in 2023 due to a 43% surge in fraud incidents, with remote transactions being most vulnerable and POS transactions seeing the highest annual increase. According to the Bank of Greece’s Financial Stability Report, out of transactions totaling over €102 billion last year, fraud incidents amounted to around €24 million, compared to €16 million in the previous year and €14 million in 2021. Despite remaining at a low level of 0.02%, the number of fraud incidents as a percentage of total transactions increased by 25%, with one fraud transaction occurring per 5,400 transactions. The value of fraud transactions increased by 46% compared to 2022, representing one euro of fraud value per €4,300 transaction value, marking a 34% increase from the previous year.

Analysis of fraud incidents by transaction type the following was recorded:

– 337,000 fraud incidents, totaling €17.5 million in 2023 in remote transactions without physical card presence (card not present – CNP), compared to 251,000 incidents totaling €13 million in 2022 (an increase of 34% and 35% respectively).
– 68,000 fraud incidents, totaling €4.2 million in 2023 in POS terminal transactions, compared to 33,000 incidents totaling €1.7 million in 2022 (an increase of 106% and 142% respectively).
– 5,000 fraud incidents, totaling €2 million in 2023 in ATM transactions, compared to 3,000 incidents totaling €1.5 million in 2022 (an increase of 58% and 35% respectively).

According to the Bank of Greece (BoG), the increase in the value of fraud transactions at ATMs and POS terminals in 2023 compared to 2022 is mainly due to fraud incidents resulting from illegal transactions using lost/stolen cards.

Specifically, the value of fraud transactions using lost/stolen cards at ATMs increased by 42%, to €1.9 million, from €1.3 million in 2022, while the value of corresponding transactions at POS terminals increased by 117%, to €3.8 million, from €1.7 million in 2022.

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Regarding remote transactions, most fraud transactions involve payments via the internet, particularly online transactions with foreign businesses, as in previous years.

In 2023, there was an increasing trend for credit and virtual cards. Credit card numbers rose by 4% to 3.1 million, while virtual cards increased by 8% to 136,000. However, prepaid cards experienced a slight 1% decrease, totaling 2.3 million, and debit cards saw a marginal 0.1% increase to 17.6 million. Overall, active payment cards reached 20.7 million, showing a marginal 0.1% increase compared to December 2022.

The average transaction value per card rose by 9% to €4,948 from €4,556 in 2022. This increase is primarily attributed to a 9% rise in the average transaction value per debit card to €5,365 from €4,898 in 2022. Average transaction value per credit card increased by 2% to €2,547 from €2,501 the previous year. However, the average transaction value per transaction, for both debit and credit cards, declined to €46 in 2023 from €48 in 2022, marking a 4.5% decrease. This shift may be due to the growing use of debit cards for purchasing lower-value goods and services.