Fraud prevention has declined for the third year in a row, while fraud detection has grown significantly, a recent study has unveiled.

According to the Eighth Annual Card Issuers’ Safety Scorecard report by Javelin Strategy & Research, card issuers have met 44 percent of fraud prevention criteria in 2012, down from 54 percent in 2011. On the other hand, results show that issuers have met 61 percent of the detection criteria in 2012, up from 49 percent in 2011. This increased effort in detection has resulted in total cost of fraud rising marginally, pointing out that card issuers are investing in processes to detect fraud earlier.

Research has also indicated that 1 in 6 issuers still do not provide an alert when a consumer’s physical address or primary phone number changes, the most common means of account takeover fraud.

Javelin’s Eighth Annual Card Issuers' Safety Scorecard analyzes and ranks 23 of the US credit card issuers, using Javelin’s PDR model. The report is based on two online surveys of over 5,000 consumers each and evaluation of card issuers including “mystery shopper” research and a review of issuer’s online presence. Javelin examines issuers’ consumer-facing security features and pinpoints those areas in prevention, detection and resolution where card issuers and third-party security vendors can invest to make the greatest impact to eliminate fraud.