Bad consumer loans added up to 450 million leva by the end of September 2006, according to Bulgarian National Bank (BNB) data.

They increased by one percentage point in the third quarter of 2006 and accounted for 9.9 per cent of the loan total at the end of September, up from 9.1 per cent by mid-year, according to BNB figures.

Meanwhile, on January 9, Bulgarian-language Pari daily said that nearly $3 million were stolen from credit cards in Bulgaria in the first nine months of 2006, according to data of credit card operators Visa and MasterCard show.

This means that $300 000 or more than 500 000 leva was stolen on an average each month. The money was stolen mainly from credit cards issued abroad.

The financial damages inflicted to each of the two companies in the period were still unclear, Pari said. Visa, however, posted а threefold increase in damages compared to 2005. The overall financial damages from credit card fraud in 2006 were expected to exceed $5 million, the Interior Ministry said.

Wealthy foreigners were the most common victims of such frauds, investigators said. Swindlers used skimmed credit cards to shop in luxurious stores and online and even in their visits to casinos in Sofia.

In addition to the traditional credit card fraud, debit card fraud was becoming increasingly popular in Bulgaria as well, said Darina Obretenova of the Economic Police. Pari said that the increase in this trend had been pointed out by Nikolay Nedkov, chairperson of the Bulgarian Card Payments Security Association (BCPSA) and head of the Card Payment department at the United Bulgarian Bank (UBB).

While there were figures for credit card fraud, no data was available on debit card fraud yet.

“The banks gather their own statistics on debit card fraud but avoid making figures public fearing that the information may shatter their image,” Pari said.