Global: UK financial fraud hits £1.2bn but APP losses dip

2022 saw a reduction of eight per cent in fraud losses on 2021, according to UK Finance figures. The number of cases across the UK fell four per cent to almost three million.

Unauthorised fraud losses across payment cards, remote banking and cheques reached £726.9 million in 2022, a decrease of less than one per cent.

But, APP fraud, which soared 39% in 2021 to £583.2 million, fell back to £485.2 million last year. Within this, 57 % of all reported cases related to purchase fraud, with case volumes breaking 100,000 for the first time.

Investment fraud continued to be one of the largest proportion of APP losses (24%), although there was a 34% reduction compared with 2021. Overall, the amount of APP fraud losses reimbursed increased by five per cent in 2022 compared to the previous year.

UK Finance has also conducted analysis on over 59,000 APP fraud cases to show the sources. More than three quarters of cases originated online – these tend to include lower-value fraud such as purchase fraud and therefore account for 36% of losses. Social media platforms account for the greatest number of online fraud cases – around three quarters.

Meanwhile, 18% of fraud cases originate via telecommunications – these are usually higher value cases, such as impersonation fraud, and account for 44% of losses.

The financial services sector has long complained that social media and telco firms have escaped responsibility for compensating the victims of financial fraud, pushing for online scams to be included in the government’s ‘Online Harms’ bill.

Earlier this week, business banking platform Tide called on the government to introduce a tax on social media and telecoms companies to fund and train more police officers to tackle what it calls Britain’s “fraud epidemic”.

David Postings, chief executive, UK Finance: “The banking and finance sector is at the forefront of efforts to tackle this criminal activity. The sector spends billions on detection and prevention and also refunds people who have fallen victim, even if the fraud originated outside the banking system.

“Our data also makes clear just how much fraud emanates from online platforms and through telecommunications. The government’s new fraud strategy rightly says we need to focus on stopping it at source and that these other sectors need to do far more to tackle the problem they are facilitating.”