Filenews 17 February 2026 - by Theano Thiopoulou
Payment card frauds are constantly evolving, keeping pace with technological advancement and taking advantage of both users' trust and lack of knowledge. The data announced by the Central Bank for the first half of 2025 show that card payments are the most widespread means of payment subject to fraud, both in absolute and relative terms.
In absolute terms, in Cyprus the most incidents of transaction fraud resulted from card payments, accounting for 92% of the total, and reached around 15,000 cases in the first half of 2025. The number of fraud incidents involving other means of payment was much lower, around 1,000 transactions. It is noted that no incident of fraud was recorded in transactions involving cheques.
According to the data, the total volume of transaction fraud incidents in the first half of 2025 increased by 30%, reaching 16,000 transactions, compared to the corresponding period of 2024, while their total value increased by 66%, reaching almost €4 million for the same period.
The higher share of fraud incidents resulting from card payments in Cyprus (92%), compared to the euro area (81%), is attributed to the more frequent use of payment cards in the country. In Cyprus, the largest increase in the total volume of fraud incidents from the first half of 2024 to the first half of 2025 was recorded in card payments, with an increase of 30%, while in the euro area the overall volume of card payment fraud incidents remained relatively stable over the same period.
It is noteworthy, as reported by the Central Bank, that credit card payments appear to be more often affected by fraud compared to debit card payments. Specifically, separating payments by card type, the fraud rate in credit card payments in the first half of 2025 (0.017%) was higher than the corresponding rate in debit card payments (0.012%). This is attributed to the fact that credit cards typically offer higher spending limits, making them a more attractive target for fraudsters.
According to the data, the forms of fraud differ by means of payment. The manipulation of the payer by the perpetrator of the fraud (i.e. deceiving account holders into making a payment to the perpetrator) was the main form of fraud in credit transfers, accounting for 59% of the total volume, with the remaining 41% attributable to unauthorised payment transactions, such as the theft of personal information.
In contrast, unauthorised payment transactions – such as card theft, card loss or theft – were the main form of fraud in card payments, covering 97% of the total volume, as well as in electronic money payments, where they accounted for 100% of incidents.
While the majority of total transactions in Cyprus concern domestic payments – i.e. transactions in which both the payer's bank and the beneficiary's bank are located in Cyprus – the majority of fraud incidents concern cross-border payments, where the payer's bank is in Cyprus and the payee's bank is abroad.
The Central Bank reports that fraud incidents in cross-border payments were significantly higher than those in domestic payments for all means of payment in the first half of 2025. In particular, card payment fraud incidents were 24 times more likely to occur in cross-border payments compared to domestic payments in Cyprus.
According to the Central Bank, this phenomenon is attributed to the different regulatory frameworks in force in different jurisdictions, as well as to the insufficient cross-border cooperation between banks and other stakeholders to tackle fraud.
