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Fraud is a “scourge” on the nation that requires a “systemic” solution warn in the industrial figures of the UK, because new data reveals that scammers are still raising millions of pounds from British consumers.
Criminals stolen £ 1.17 billion by fraud in 2024, in accordance with the previous year, said UK Finance, the trade organization of the financial services, published in its annual report on Wednesday.
But because losses in authorized Push payment (App) fraud fell to £ 450 million in 2024 of £ 460 million in 2023 due to the rising consciousness and investments in technology, unauthorized losses jumped to £ 722 million from £ 709 million when criminals turned around in new scams.
App -Fraud is when victims are misled to move money to a fake account, while unauthorized fraud is when someone performs a transaction with bank details or credit cards without the owner’s knowledge.
“Fraud in the UK is still not decreasing. This is the time to recognize this scourge as the systemic problem it is and to tackle with a systemic solution,” said Gadi Mazor, Chief Executive of digital identity and cyber security company Biocatch.
“Fraud causes serious damage to individuals, society and our economy, since stolen money goes to serious organized crime groups, both here and abroad,” added Ben Donaldson, director of Economic Crime at UK Finance.
The number of apps cases fell by 20 percent to less than 186,000 in 2024 -the lowest figure since 2020. The most of the investment fraud, when a criminal convinced their victim to move their money to a fictional fund or to pay a fake investment. Despite a reduction of 24 percent in cases, losses grew by 34 percent to £ 144 million of £ 108 million.
The number of unauthorized fraud cases increased by 14 percent last year to 3.13 million. One of the main reasons was an increase in external purchase fraud when criminals use stolen card data to make purchases on the internet or by telephone.
Scammers use similar tactics if they in app fraud to allow consumers to reveal one-off pass codes that are used to verify online transactions.
The regulator of the payment system introduced compulsory compensation for victims of app -fraud in October and 86 percent of the stolen money was returned in the first three months of enforcement of the rules.
Victims of unauthorized fraud, which are legally protected against losses, were completely reimbursed in more than 98 percent of the cases, according to the British financial data.
Donaldson from UK Finance called on the technology sector to “act and fight” fraud and insisted on more cooperation between the public and private sectors.
“We need the technology and telecommunications sector to act and actually fight the fraud that come on their platforms and networks,” he said.