A recent survey finds that 27 percent of cardholders (debit, credit and prepaid) around the world have experienced fraud in the past five years, according to an article from Forbes. Rates of fraud vary across countries but in Mexico and the U.S., users are more prone to fraud with 44 percent and 42 percent of respondents there saying they’ve experienced card fraud.

The report from Aite Group and ACI Worldwide surveyed more than 5,000 consumers in 17 countries, noting that U.S. consumers are heavy card users, and more card use means a greater likelihood for fraud, Forbes reports.

Another reason that the U.S. ranks high on the fraud list – it is not on the EMV (Europay, Mastercard and Visa) standard. This is the standard followed by most European countries to ensure card security via microchip in credit and debit cards, the article says. That extra layer of security has helped to drop the fraud levels in Europe.

The EMV standard is expected to begin in the U.S. in 2013, but it will take several years to be fully implemented while systems across the country are updated to read and accept the chips – which means updated ATMs and card systems.

Most countries with the lowest rates of fraud in this survey are primarily European. The Netherlands and Sweden are at the bottom of the list with only 12 percent of consumers experiencing fraud in the last five years, Forbes reports.

Credit card fraud is more common than debit card fraud in most of the 17 countries, but again the U.S. and Mexico have the highest rates – 37 percent of respondents experienced credit card fraud while only eight percent in The Netherlands reported the same, according to the article. However, Forbes notes that Mexico’s high fraud rates can also be attributed to its high levels of organized crime.

Other survey findings include:

• 19 percent of Canadian cardholders experienced credit card fraud.
• 20 percent of consumers in the U.S. report debit card fraud, placing the U.S. in fourth place behind Mexico (25 percent), China (24 percent) and India (21 percent).
• Only six percent of Germans report debit card fraud.
• 14 percent of respondents across the survey say they’ve experienced debit or credit card theft more than once over the past five years, which is a six percent increase from the 2011 survey.