The UK financial services industry was responsible for stopping a total of £910 million worth of attempted card, cheque and online and telephone banking fraud in the first half of 2015, new figures have revealed.
This is the first time that Financial Fraud Action UK has published the value of prevented
Stepping up the fight against fraud
fraud. It found that bank and card company security systems detected two thirds – £7 in every £10 – of fraud between January and June this year.
Overall, financial fraud losses rose by 6% to reach £325 million in H1. Card fraud accounted for £250 million of this, although a further £355 million was prevented. Card fraud as a proportion of card purchases fell to 6.9p for every £100 spent, the lowest level since 2011 and down from 7.5p at the end of 2014.
Fraud on contactless cards remained very low with £516,500 of losses during the first six months of 2015, compared to spending of £2.58 billion – the equivalent to 2p of fraud for every £100 spent.
In terms of remote banking, a total of £294 million of attempted fraud was stopped by bank security systems in the first six months of 2015. Losses still rose by 37% to £65.9 million, with telephone banking losses rising by 95% to £14 million, and internet banking losses increasing by 27% to £51 million. However, a third (£20.6 million) of all these losses were recovered after the incident.
Meanwhile, cheque fraud losses dipped by a further 21% to £9.5 million – the third consecutive year of declining losses and the lowest ever total reported for the first six-month period. Some £262 million of cheque fraud was prevented by bank monitoring systems – the equivalent to £9.50 in every £10 of attempted cheque fraud.
Commenting on the latest figures, Katy Worobec, director of Financial Fraud Action UK, said: “Banks use sophisticated security systems to protect their customers, stopping over two thirds of fraud from occurring. However, the industry is never complacent and banks are continuously improving the tools they use to beat the evolving threat of fraud.
“Fraudsters are now attempting to trick people into handing over passwords, PINs and passcodes – the keys to the door – so it’s vital that customers safeguard their personal and financial information. Criminals impersonate many different organisations, including banks, the police, government departments and utility companies. That’s why we support calls for a national fraud campaign encompassing all those organisations best placed to help customers.”
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