A total of over £1.3bn was stolen through fraud and scams in 2021, the latest data from UK Finance shows.
The latest figures found that unauthorised fraud totalled £730.4m but showed a decrease of 7% compared to 2020.
As victims of unauthorised payment card fraud are legally protected against losses, industry analysis shows that customers are refunded in excess of 98% of all confirmed cases.
Meanwhile, authorised push payment (APP) fraud stood at £583.2m, with nearly 40% of APP losses due to impersonation scams.
Of the total losses through APP fraud, the largest category was impersonation scams, with £214.8m lost to criminals impersonating a range of organisations to trick people into giving away their personal and financial information.
UK Finance says a total of £271.2m of losses were returned to victims of APP scams, accounting for 47% of losses.
The banking and finance industry prevented a further £1.4bn of unauthorised fraud, UK Finance reveals.
UK Finance managing director of economic crime Katy Worobec says: “Unauthorised fraud losses fell last year, but this type of criminal activity remains a major problem. Through the introduction of new measures such as strong customer authentication, coupled with continued investment in technology, the banking and finance industry prevents significant amounts of fraud from taking place.”
“Authorised fraud losses rose again this year as criminals targeted people through a variety of sophisticated scams, with much of the criminal activity taking place outside the banking sector, often involving online and technology platforms.”
Given that much of the fraud is initiated from criminal activity taking place through online and technology platforms, UK Finance says alongside its member, it will continue to call for greater cross-sector action to tackle the problem and will continue working with the government on upcoming legislation in this area.
SmartSearch managing director Martin Cheek says the company will support UK Finance’s call for cross-sector action to tackle online scammers.
Cheek comments: “Behind these miserable crimes, which often exploit the most vulnerable, are criminals who have been able to able to hide their identities and move stolen money.”
“As scammers use ever-more sophisticated ways to steal and launder cash, these findings are yet another indication that robust electronic verification checks are the quickest and most effective way for the organisations these criminals exploit to manage their risks and – most importantly – to protect their customers.”
Worobex says the upcoming Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Bill is “an important development and provides the opportunity for the government to give new powers on information sharing and tracking stolen money”.
“These are things we have long called for and will support efforts to work together and stop the fraud happening in the first place,” she adds.
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