Latest figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) in its Crime Survey for England and Wales (CSEW) showed that consumer and retail fraud increased by 19%, reaching approximately 963,000 incidents.
Chad Reimers, General Manager of Fraud & ID at TransUnion said “The latest Crime in England and Wales figures from the Office for National Statistics have revealed that while overall volume of incidents of fraud showed no significant change in the year ending June 2024, there was a 19% increase in consumer and retail fraud. This correlates with – and continues — recent trends observed in similar sectors via TransUnion’s State of Omnichannel Fraud Report, where we have seen risky transactions rise by 33% in Retail and by nearly 10% in the Communities sector (including market-places and online dating). This is also consistent with recent stats comparing H1-24 to H1-23 published by UK Finance (16% increase in total cases) and Cifas (15%), demonstrating that more efforts continue to be required to drive awareness for consumers and for organisations to implement the right onboarding and monitoring controls, using a range of data signals and technology.
“Over the past year, the fraud landscape has continued to evolve, and we have seen shifts in fraudsters targeting retail and e-commerce sectors, particularly through chargebacks, delivery fraud, and a cross-over into the telco sector via handset delivery scams. Often these techniques then impact consumers of financial services organisations via the use of mule accounts and authorised push payment scams. Organisations need to ensure they are building data-informed customer journeys, which not only identify potential fraud risk, but also aim to increase trust with consumers, based on a holistic understanding of their identity, digital attributes, and relevant device footprints.”
ONS’s Meghan Elkin said “Crime has increased over the past year. Some of this might be explained because the previous survey reporting period (July 2021 to May 2023) still included times of COVID-19 restrictions. However, it’s too early to tell if this change represents a short-term fluctuation or the start of a new trend.
“While most crime types didn’t change significantly, there were notable increases in robbery, violence with injury and consumer and retail fraud. Police figures also reflect the increase in robbery offences, while shoplifting remains at record levels.”