More people in the UK are suffering from payment card fraud than ever, with £492 million stolen by criminals in 2015, representing an 18 per cent rise, according to a new study from Fico.

The International Business Times reports that security experts believe the popularity of online shopping is one of the main factors in this increase, since card transactions are intrinsic to this process.

The UK suffered the biggest losses as a result of card theft in the whole of Europe, making up 43 per cent of the continental total in the past 12 months. And cybercrime is blamed in the majority of cases.

Report spokesperson, Martin Warwick, said that banks were faced with a quandary when dealing with online transactions, since while it was paramount for them to be able to provide the tools for customers to carry out safe shopping online, they were also aware of the need to make the process as smooth as possible.

He also explained that consumers were increasingly tech-savvy and had higher expectations of card providers as a result, meaning that people are less likely to stick with a company if it fails them.

Around half of the European nations covered by the survey were found to have suffered a rise in card fraud last year. And analysts expect that this trend of growth will continue for as long as the e-commerce sector continues to expand.

While observers are quick to call on banks and payment card firms to do more to enable customers to carry out safe shopping online, the reality is that these organisations are facing an uphill struggle in many cases. They must also work with retailers in order to shore up digital defences and make fraud less appealing to groups of criminals.