Financial losses from authorised push payment (APP) fraud, romance and purchase scams and impersonation deceptions show a marked decline in the first half of the year, according to new data from UK Finance.
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All told, criminals stole £571.7 million from consumer bank accounts through unauthorised and authorised fraud, a 1.5% decrease compared to the first half of 2023.
Authorised push payment (APP) fraud losses stood at £213.7million, down 11 per cent compared with the first half of last year. This comprised £166.5 million of personal losses and £47.2 million of business losses.
The total number of APP cases was down 16 per cent to 97,344, with falls in case numbers across all categories of APP fraud.
The number of purchase scams, where a victim pays in advance for goods or services that are never received also decreased by 11 per cent. The number of romance scams, where victims are tricked into believing they are in a relationship, fell by seven per cent and investment scams decreased in cases by 29 per cent.
The number of fraud cases where criminals impersonate a bank or the police and convince someone to transfer money to a ‘safe account’ fell by 32 per cent and the amount lost to this type of fraud fell by 26 per cent.
Once again, social media platforms and telco networks are the driving force behind losses suffered by consumers.
UK Finance data shows 72 per cent of APP fraud cases originated from online sources. These cases tend to be lower-value scams, such as purchase scams, and so account for 32 per cent of total losses.
Sixteen percent of the total originated in telecommunications and these tend to include higher value cases, such as impersonation fraud, and so account for 35 per cent of total losses.
Ben Donaldson, managing director of economic crime at UK Finance, comments: “This isn’t a fight we will win alone as our data again shows that most fraud originates online and via telecommunications networks. There have been some improvements made by other sectors, but their actions don’t yet fully match the scale of the problem – more needs to be done to prevent fraudsters exploiting these platforms and networks.”
There was less heartening news regarding more traditional attack vectors, where losses due to unauthorised transactions across payment cards, remote banking and cheques rose to £358 million in the first half of this year, an increase of five per cent. The total number of recorded cases was just over 1.5 million, an increase of 19 per cent.
Payment cards represented the weakest link, with the data revealing a 26 per cent increase in card not present cases.
UK Finance says Strong Customer Authentication (SCA) has helped to reduce fraud by verifying a customer’s identity However, evidence has shown that criminals have been socially engineering victims to trick them into divulging one-time passcodes to authenticate online transactions.
Dan Holmes, director of banking fraud, identity & market strategy at Feedzai comments:
“It’s encouraging to see declines in certain fraud categories, in particular APP, thanks in most part to strong investment by banks along with industry collaboration and education programmes.
“Increases in unauthorised fraud across multiple channels reminds us that we cannot be complacent. Fraudsters are dynamic, meaning prevention strategies must be too. Continuous innovation and an ability to be agile and adapt quickly remains vital.”