Criminals stole £580 million through both unauthorised and authorised fraud in the first half of 2023, reflecting a two percent decrease compared to the same period in 2022, according to new data from UK Finance.
The report highlights that fraudsters are increasingly leveraging social media, online platforms, texts, phone calls, and emails to trick victims into revealing their personal information and handing over their money.
Losses from authorised push payment (APP) fraud totaled £239.3 million, down one percent from the previous year. This amount included £196.7 million in personal losses and £42.6 million in business losses. Notably, 77% of APP fraud cases originated from online sources, with these generally encompassing lower-value scams such as purchase frauds, which accounted for 32% of total losses. An additional 17% of cases arose from telecommunications, which typically involve higher-value cases like impersonation fraud, representing 45% of the total losses.
The total number of APP cases saw a significant increase of 22%, reaching 116,324. The primary driver behind this rise was purchase scams, where individuals are deceived into prepaying for goods that never arrive. These scams surged by 43%, totaling just under 77,000 cases, while the losses increased by 31% to £40.9 million.
Romance scams, where victims are misled into believing they are in a relationship, also saw a notable rise, increasing by 29%. The financial loss associated with this type of fraud grew by 26%, reaching £18.5 million.
Conversely, cases involving criminals impersonating banks or police and persuading victims to transfer money to a ‘safe account’ decreased by 35%, with losses from this scam type falling by 27%. This decline follows significant efforts made to educate consumers about the fact that banks will never request such money transfers.
In total, £152.8 million in APP losses was returned to victims in the first half of 2023, representing 64% of the total losses. This figure reflects a 13% increase from £135.6 million returned in the same period in 2022.