Consumers will have to give far more information to retailers when using credit cards on the telephone, Internet or by post under a joint initiative from Mastercard and Visa to crack down on fraud.

From next April, all worldwide users of cards from Mastercard and UK users of Visa cards will need to give the three-digit identifier printed on the signature strip on the back of the card whenever they do not sign a receipt.

From April, all Mastercard and Visa users in the UK will also be asked for details of their address as is already standard practice in the US.

Last year Mastercard recorded global card fraud of $703 million (€779 million), up a third on the previous year, while Visa suffered worldwide debit and credit card fraud of $1.2 billion, an increase of almost 28 per cent on 1998. In Britain, card fraud reached £189 million sterling last year.