Losses incurred by the UK banking industry due to fraud hit £301.7m in the first half of 2008, compared to £263.6m in the same period in 2007, according to UK payments association Apacs.

Card crime abroad skyrocketed in the first half to £121.2m, representing 40 per cent of total card fraud losses and a 11 per cent increase on the £108.8m figure from last year.

Apacs said that, although chip and Pin has reduced UK banking losses by 35 per cent, overseas card fraud is still on the up as criminals steal card details at cash machines in the UK to use in countries where the technology is not yet available.

However, the organisation expects that the 2010 European roll-out of plastic cards and readers using chip-based technology will help mitigate the rising levels of card crime abroad.

Card-not-present fraud, which includes crime taking place over the phone and the internet, is also on the increase. Incidences rose by 18 per cent to reach a value of £161.9m for the first six months of the year.

And e-crime losses, mainly blamed on increasing phishing and spyware attacks, hit £21.4m during the period, representing a 185 per cent rise on 2007.