Increasing use of online card protection by retailers and consumers is cutting back on the number of instances of fraud, a card provider has claimed.

According to Visa, the finance industry is working on making it harder for criminals to infiltrate the transaction chain.

Consumers are becoming more used to inputting a dedicated code every time they pay for something over the internet such as 'verified by Visa', the company explained.

Ian Barber, spokesperson for Visa, said this combination of improvements to the way that payments are made and greater awareness among shoppers appears to be stopping criminals.

'The thing about fraud is you can reduce it a bit, and we have reduced it in the UK but part of what some people think is happening is actually fraudsters [are] stopping looking at the UK and looking elsewhere,' he added.

Figures from Financial Fraud Action UK, the organisation formerly known as Apacs, revealed that card fraud losses were down by almost a quarter to £232.8 million during the first half of 2009 when compared with the same period the previous year.