Over £1.2bn stolen through fraud
Over £1.2bn was stolen by criminals through authorised and unauthorised fraud last year – the equivalent to over £2,300 every minute, according to UK Finance’s latest annual fraud report.
However, this was an eight per cent reduction from 2021, according to the trade body’s research, while the number of fraud cases across the UK fell by four per cent to almost three million cases.
“The banking and finance sector is at the forefront of efforts to tackle this criminal activity,” said David Postings, chief executive at UK Finance. “The sector spends billions on detection and prevention and also refunds people who have fallen victim, even if the fraud originated outside the banking system.”
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Data from UK Finance makes it clear how much fraud emanates from online platforms and through telecommunications, at 78 per cent and 18 per cent respectively. Social media accounts for the greatest number of online fraud cases, with around three quarters of online fraud starting on social media platforms.
“The government’s new fraud strategy rightly says we need to focus on stopping it at source and that these other sectors need to do far more to tackle the problem they are facilitating,” said Postings.
Remote purchase fraud remains the biggest category of losses at £395.7m. Fraud on lost and stolen cards increased by 30 per cent to £100.2m and card ID theft almost doubled to £51.7m.
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“We often overestimate our ability to spot a financial scam when, in reality, even those who consider themselves financially savvy aren’t immune to increasingly sophisticated scams” Myron Jobson, senior personal finance analyst at interactive investor said.
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“In addition to the basics, which include not sharing your login credentials and ensuring that online transactions are made from secure and trusted websites, be mindful of who you disclose personal information to and remember that if a proposition seems too good to be true then it probably is.”