"Our fraud losses are actually among the lowest in the industry," he said.

EBay offers an insurance policy covering $200 in fraud loss with a $25 deductible.

These champions will work collaboratively to co-ordinate each government department's efforts to reduce fraud losses.

"Consumers will have a degree of security they can't have any other way, and the merchants will have lower fraud losses."

The delay not only caused hundreds of thousands of dollars in fraud losses to businesses victimized by Freemen checks.

Applied to the estimated 2011 Gross World Product, this figure translates to a potential projected global fraud loss of more than $3.5 trillion.

The group said fraud losses on foreign issued cards used in the UK had jumped by 36pc during the first half of the year to £81.1 million.

But cheque fraud losses dropped by 26pc to £15.6 million, as the use of cheques continued to decline.

Ebay has already introduced an insurance program to cover the first $200 of fraud losses, with a $25 deductible.

Banks set their own security levels, and have to strike a balance between cutting fraud losses and not inconveniencing customers too much.