Financial losses from authorised push payment (APP) fraud, romance scams, purchase scams, and impersonation deceptions have significantly decreased in the first half of the year, according to new data from UK Finance.
Criminals stole £571.7 million from consumer bank accounts through both unauthorised and authorised fraud, reflecting a 1.5% decline compared to the same period in 2023. Losses from APP fraud totaled £213.7 million, an 11% reduction from the previous year, which included £166.5 million in personal losses and £47.2 million in business losses.
The total number of APP fraud cases fell by 16% to 97,344, with decreases noted across all APP fraud categories. Specifically, purchase scams—where victims pay in advance for goods or services that are never delivered—declined by 11%. Romance scams, in which victims are deceived into believing they are in a relationship, saw a 7% decrease, and investment scams dropped by 29%.
Fraud cases involving impersonation—where criminals pose as bank representatives or police officers to convince victims to transfer money to a ‘safe account’—decreased by 32%, with financial losses from this type of fraud down by 26%.
The data indicates that social media platforms and telecommunications networks continue to be significant contributors to consumer losses. UK Finance reports that 72% of APP fraud cases originated from online sources, primarily lower-value scams like purchase fraud, which accounted for 32% of total losses. Additionally, 16% of total losses stemmed from telecommunications sources, often involving higher-value impersonation fraud, representing 35% of total losses.
Ben Donaldson, managing director of economic crime at UK Finance, remarked: “This isn’t a fight we will win alone. Our data shows most fraud originates online and via telecommunications networks. While some improvements have been made by other sectors, their efforts have not fully addressed the scale of the problem—more needs to be done to prevent fraudsters from exploiting these platforms and networks.”
In contrast, losses due to unauthorised transactions from payment cards, remote banking, and cheques rose to £358 million in the first half of this year, marking a 5% increase, with recorded cases exceeding 1.5 million—a 19% rise. Payment cards represented a significant vulnerability, with a 26% increase in card-not-present cases noted.
UK Finance states that Strong Customer Authentication (SCA) measures have helped reduce fraud by verifying customer identity; however, there is growing evidence that criminals are still successfully socially engineering victims to obtain one-time passcodes used for online transactions.
Dan Holmes, director of banking fraud, identity & market strategy at Feedzai, commented, “It’s encouraging to see declines in certain fraud categories, particularly APP, thanks largely to strong investments by banks along with industry collaboration and educational programs. However, the rises in unauthorised fraud across multiple channels remind us that we cannot be complacent. Fraudsters are dynamic, which means our prevention strategies must be as well. Continuous innovation and agility remain vital.”