Customer complaints about banking-related frauds and scams reached their highest levels since before the pandemic, the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS) said.
A total of 8,734 consumers made complaints about financial fraud and scams between April and the end of June – the highest since records began to be collated in 2018, the service said.
Over half them related to so-called authorised push-payment (APP) frauds or customer-approved online bank transfers, also known as authorised push payment (APP) scams.
The ombudsman warned that financial crimes were becoming more complex and fraudsters “more convincing”.
Abby Thomas, chief ombudsman of the FOS, said: “Being a victim of a fraud and scam is a horrendous experience – not just financially, but emotionally, too. That’s why it’s disappointing to see complaint levels rising to even higher levels.
“We often hear from people embarrassed to have fallen victim to a fraud, but these crimes can be complex and incredibly convincing, and nobody should be afraid to come forward.”
Pat Hurley, ombudsman director for banking, said: “Fraudsters’ methods are always evolving and we continue to see that reflected in the complaints brought to our service.
“We are currently receiving – and resolving – around 500 fraud and scam complaints a week. In all the cases we receive, we’ll look at the individual circumstances and investigate whether a business did everything it was required to do.
“When we do uphold complaints, we expect firms to learn from our findings and apply them to any future interactions with their customers.”
The FOS said the case rise was also due to instances where consumers are putting in multiple claims due to more than one firm being involved. More online fraud cases are also being brought by professional representatives.
“In recent years, we have investigated thousands of cases, returning more than £150m to those who have fallen victim to these crimes,” Ms Thomas said.
Many banks have signed up to a voluntary code that provides additional protection for consumers and means they are reimbursed unless there are exceptional circumstances. Some banks operate their own fraud refund guarantees such as the TSB.
Of the 4,752 APP scam cases received by the ombudsman in the first three months of this financial year, 2,734 were not covered by the code.
New mandatory reimbursement rules, being brought in by the Payment Systems Regulator (PSR) next month should also speed up the time it takes to be reimbursed, the FOS said.
However, the ombudsman service said it has seen a significant rise in complaints where people see investment opportunities on social media and then inadvertently pay fraudsters using their debit or credit cards which are not covered by the voluntary code or the new PSR rules, the ombudsman said.
The service said it had also had more cases of multi-stage fraud where funds pass through several banks before reaching the fraudster.
While banks have improved their fraud detection and prevention methods, the percentage of complaints upheld against them continues to be higher than average, FOS said.
It upheld 44 per cent of fraud and scam complaints in consumers’ favour in the latest quarter, compared to the average rate of 37 per cent across all products and complaints issues.