Credit card
iStockphoto/Onphalai

A new report says the second quarter of the year brought a sharp rise in credit card fraud.

Equifax Canada says the rate of credit card fraud rose to 0.75% in Q2, compared with 0.44% a year earlier.

That means out of every 10,000 credit cards, about 75 are fraudulent, compared with 44 last year.

The consumer credit reporting agency says the spike came despite application fraud rates across Canada falling to their lowest level since the third quarter of 2022.

Application fraud occurs when someone lies or uses stolen information on an application for credit, a loan or another financial service.

Application fraud rates dropped to 0.56% in Q2 2025, down from 0.70% in the previous quarter and 0.57% a year ago.