Brits lost £572m to fraud in H1 2024, but warnings from banks start to turn tide on ‘authorised’ fraud

Criminals stole £571.7 million in the first half of 2024, new figures from UK Finance reveal.

While still a staggering figure, it marks a 1.5 percent drop in the amount of money lost to criminals compared to the first half of 2023.

It was hit by a drop in authorized fraud, also known as authorized push payments or app fraud, which saw the first drop in cases since the second half of 2021.

App fraud occurs when someone is tricked into paying money into a scammer’s account or giving them a password.

In other words, they perform some type of action or volunteer information that makes fraud possible.

While the amount of money stolen by fraudsters decreased overall in the first six months of the year, the number of cases unfortunately increased by 16 percent, to 1.6 million.

Is the trend of authorized push payments changing?

UK Finance divides fraud into two categories: authorized and unauthorized (more on this below).

APP fraud decreased compared to the first half of 2023, both in cases and in the amount of stolen money. This reduced the overall fraud loss figure for the first half of 2024.

Criminals stole £213.7 million from Britons in this way, 11 percent less than in the first half of last year.

The drop in app fraud has been helped by banks, which have gone to great lengths to warn customers when they detect a rise in a particular type of scam, including AI voice imitation scams and director scams. executives.

Banks prevented £710.9 million of unauthorized fraud through advanced security systems, according to UK Finance.

The total number of PPP cases fell 16 per cent to 97,344, with falls in the number of cases across all categories of PPP fraud, UK Finance reported.

The volume of PPP cases had been on an upward trend since the second half of 2021, when 94,456 cases of PPP fraud were recorded. Since then they have increased year after year and this is the first time they have decreased since then.

The number of purchasing scams, in which the victim pays in advance for goods or services they never receive, fell by 11 percent.

The number of romance scams, in which victims are tricked into believing they are in a relationship, fell by seven percent and investment scams also fell by 29 percent.

A total of £14.5 million was lost to romance scams between January and June 2024, a decrease of 21 per cent compared to the same period in 2023.

The number of fraud cases in which criminals impersonate a bank or the police and convince someone to transfer money fell by 32 percent and the amount lost to this type of fraud fell by 26 percent .

A total of £18.8 million was lost due to this type of scam during the first six months of 2024, a decrease of 42 per cent compared to 2023.

“It is encouraging to see declines in certain categories of fraud, particularly PPP, thanks in large part to strong investment by banks along with industry collaboration and educational programs,” said Dan Holmes, director of bank fraud, identity and market strategy in Fraud Detection. Feedzai company.

Losses from unauthorized fraud continue to take their toll

Unauthorized fraud (in which victims are not directly involved, for example purchases made with stolen credit card data) increased in the first half of 2024 in both number of cases and amount lost.

Losses due to unauthorized transactions between payment cards, remote banking and checks amounted to £358 million in the first half of this year, an increase of five per cent on the first half of 2023.

The total number of cases was just over 1.5 million, an increase of 19 percent from the same period last year.

UK Finance said one of the main reasons for the rise in payment card fraud losses was a 26 per cent rise in “card not present” cases. This occurs when a transaction is made over the phone or online using stolen card data.

Criminals can purchase millions of stolen credit card details on the dark web to use in purchases and sell to other criminals in bundles.

There has also been an increase in the number of criminals stealing mobile phones to access their victims’ banking applications and receive money.

Victims of unauthorized fraud cases such as these are legally protected against loss, and customers receive a full refund in more than 98 percent of these fraud cases, according to UK Finance.

On 7 October 2024, rules introduced by the Payment Systems Regulator were approved requiring banks to compensate victims of APP fraud up to £85,000 within five days, after the limit was diluted original £415,000.

Ben Donaldson, managing director of economic crime at UK Finance, said: “While repayment is important in the fight against fraud, it can only be part of the solution.”

“On its own it does nothing to prevent or reduce psychological harm to victims, nor does it stop organized crime groups from stealing money.”

Responding to the data, Nicola Bannister, chief customer officer at TSB, said: “While banks are helping to reduce fraud losses, with a notable reduction in push payment fraud, too many consumers are still dealing with the impact.” devastating scams that arise from online and telephone companies.

Stephen White, COO of Santander UK, said: “With more than 70 per cent of app scams originating on online platforms and 16 per cent via telecoms networks, we must focus our efforts on protecting to consumers, and to do so, we desperately need collaboration across industries, including banks, technology companies, telecommunications, and government, to create meaningful change.