The number of payment card fraud cases in Ukraine has decreased, but the amount of losses has increased - NBU
Kyiv • UNN
The number of fraudulent transactions with payment cards decreased by 1%, but losses increased by 37% and reached UAH 1.1 billion. Most fraud occurs online through social engineering.
Last year, the number of payment card fraud decreased by 2,000 transactions (by 1%) – to 270,000 transactions. However, losses from them increased by 37% – to a total amount of UAH 1.1 billion. This is reported by UNN with reference to the National Bank of Ukraine in Telegram.
Details
According to the NBU, there were 31 fraudulent transactions per million expenditure transactions with payment cards.
The average amount of one illegal transaction increased by 39% compared to 2023. It increased from UAH 3,065 in 2023 to UAH 4,247 in 2024.
There was also an increase in the total amount of expenditure transactions using payment cards - by 8%. Accordingly, the relative level of losses from fraud using payment cards to the total amount of expenditure transactions increased by 28%.
Fraud loss indicators for 2024 show that in most cases, people fall victim to fraudsters due to non-compliance with basic payment security rules. Therefore, in 2025, the National Bank plans to continue the practice of raising citizens' awareness of the rules for safe use of payment cards and Internet banking and to repeat the All-Ukrainian information campaign on payment security "FraudGoodbye"
So, for every million hryvnias spent using payment cards, there were UAH 176 of fraud losses.
Most frauds were carried out via the Internet – 83% of the total number of fraudulent transactions. The vast majority of fraudulent cases are caused, as in previous years, by social engineering. That is, when clients independently disclose personal data, payment card details, confirmation codes and passwords for conducting payment transactions.
Reminder
SBU cyber experts, together with Czech law enforcement officers, liquidated a call center in Zakarpattia, which stole millions from the accounts of EU residents. The four organizers of the scheme face up to 12 years in prison.