Banks may be seeing the first signs that they can expect to earn a return on their belated investment in credit card fraud deterrence.The rate of fraud on all Australian-issued payment cards dropped from 47.4 cents to 46.1 cents in every A$1000 transacted over the year to June 30, 2013, data released by the Australian Payments Clearing Association yesterday shows.This is marginally below the incidence of fraud in 2012 but still higher than in 2011.The overall amount of payments card fraud increased by one per cent, to $280.5 million, APCA said. This compares with an increase of four per cent in the total amount spent by Australians on their cards.APCA said card-not-present fraud represented the bulk of fraud on Australian-issued cards over the 12-month period. CNP fraud (which occurs mainly online) increased by five per cent, to $199 million. Internet shopping increased three times as fast over the same period.Counterfeit and skimming fraud on Australian-issued payment cards dropped by 29 per cent, to $38 million. The $24 million that actually incurred in Australia - a four per cent increase - was primarily the result of skimming at ATMs, APCA said."Chip technology is having a significant impact on reducing card skimming at POS terminals," APCA chief executive Chris Hamilton said in a statement."The industry is now moving towards chip-reading ATMs to close the loop on skimming fraud," Hamilton said.APCA said that "criminals are reverting to simple theft and deception to obtain cards."