£609.8m stolen through fraud in the first half of 2022

UK Finance has published its latest fraud report, covering the first half of 2022.

The reports shows that while the end of the pandemic has seen a fall in overall fraud losses, some fraud types have increased as criminals continue to adapt their methods. A total of over £609.8 million was stolen through fraud and scams in the first half of 2022, a decline of 13 per cent compared to H1 2021. Of this total, unauthorised fraud loses were £360.8 million and authorised push payment (APP) fraud losses were £249.1 million. The banking and finance industry prevented a further £583.9 million of unauthorised fraud from getting into the hands of criminals.

Katy Worobec, managing director of Economic Crime at UK Finance, said “As we have warned previously, the level of fraud in the UK is such that it must be considered a national security threat. The industry is continuously focused on tackling the threat as we know criminals continue to find new ways to exploit potential victims. However, criminal gangs simply bypass the advanced security measures banks have in place and instead directly target the customer, usually outside the confines of the banking system. This is why it is key that other sectors work with us to fight fraud as it remains a persistent threat to businesses, consumers and the growth of the economy not to mention the reputation of the UK as a place to do business.”

Commenting on the findings, Emma Lovell, CEO of the Lending Standards Board said “It is encouraging to see that the amount lost to APP scams has decreased 17 per cent in the first half of the year compared to that in 2021, suggesting that warnings from banks and building societies, along with their education and prevention efforts, are having an impact.”

“But the key to stopping more of these criminals is having multiple lines of defence, rooting out as many scams as possible before they reach would-be victims. This means bringing other sectors into the APP fraud prevention fold – social media platforms, utility and telecoms companies.”

“UK Finance’s statistics also show banks and building societies are returning more money to the victims of the scams that do succeed, with 60% of returned losses falling under the CRM Code. Reimbursement is crucial to reversing the financial distress of scams, but the long-lasting impact on victims, including their mental health, can only be avoided through stopping scams before they happen. Thus, prevention should remain top of the agenda.”