UK credit card companies yesterday ordered pornography websites to clean up their acts, after finding that they are responsible for the highest levels of online fraud.

The Excessive Merchant Fraud Programme, which was set up by credit card companies in April this year, is finally being implemented as credit card firms begin to imposes fines of up to $5000 per month if two per cent of a company's credit card transactions turn out to be fraudulent.

Visa has taken a harsher swipe at the companies by fining them up to $100,000 a month if fraud breaks the seven per cent barrier.

The worldwide level of credit card fraud is believed to be 0.16 per cent of all credit card transactions, but Internet-based fraud is significantly higher at four per cent. In the UK this translates into losses of £7m every year.

Paul Lucraft, deputy general manager for UK and Ireland at Europay, which acts for Mastercard, said the programme has come about following an increase in complaints.

"Some porn companies are trading in a dodgy fashion, and there are a lot of unethical types of business," he said.

He warned that sites requiring credit card details for 'proof of age' checks, sometimes charge to the card anyway.

Other unscrupulous companies obtain credit card numbers from different transactions and use them on porn sites, often locking users into a paying contract because they are too embarrassed to complain.

First published on uk.internet.com