A latest report from the UK Finance has revealed that the finance industry has blocked £1.66bn of unauthorized fraud during 2018.
Image: UK Finance has reported banking industry has prevented £1.66bn fraud in 2018. Photo: courtesy of Khotcharak / FreeDigitalPhotos.net.
The Fraud the Facts 2019 report has noted that the industry has efficiently prevented £2 in every £3 of attempted unauthorized fraud.
Criminals have stolen £1.20bn during the same period, via both authorized and unauthorized fraud.
Industry research has advised that the looting personal and financial information through social engineering caused by data breaches outside the financial sector was a significant contributor to the fraud losses.
Stolen data is used to make fraud both directly and indirectly, and significant brands have been affected with high-profile data breaches during 2018.
A total of £1.66bn of unauthorized fraud included £1.12bn in attempted unauthorized card fraud, £318m in attempted unauthorized remote banking fraud and £218m in attempted unauthorised cheque fraud.
A total of £1.20bn was stolen by criminals is comprised of £354m and £845m in unauthorized fraud.
The report has also revealed losses due to unauthorized transactions on payment cards increased 19% to £671m, while losses due to unauthorised remote banking fraud totalled £153m that is 2% lower than 2017, and the cheque fraud losses increased by 109% to £21m.
An authorized push payment (APP) scam has resulted in a loss of £354m, which included £228m with personal accounts and £126m with business accounts.
To provide new protections for customers of payment service providers, the Authorised Push Payment Scams Voluntary Code has been framed, which will come into force on 28 May this year.
UK Finance economic crime managing director Katy Worobec said: “Fraud is a crime which poses a major threat to us all – it can have a devastating impact on victims and the money stolen funds even more damaging crimes such as terrorism, drug trafficking and people smuggling.
“Every business, from online retailers to social media companies, as well as the public sector, has a duty to work together to beat fraud and prevent stolen data getting into the hands of criminals.”