Financial Crime World

UK Finance Reports £609.8 Million Losses to Financial Crime in H1 2022: A Persistent Threat

UK Finance, the trade body representing the British banking and financial services industry, has released its latest fraud report for the first half of 2022. Here are the key findings.

Overview

  • Authorised and unauthorised fraud totaled over £609.8 million during the period, representing a 13% decrease compared to the same time in 2021.
  • However, industry experts warn that this decrease might not indicate a long-term trend.

Unauthorised Fraud

  • Unauthorised fraud, i.e., theft without customer consent, accounted for £360.8 million in losses during the first half of 2022.
  • This is a 9% decrease compared to the previous year.
  • Customers are legally protected against losses and are refunded over 98% of all confirmed cases.

Authorised Push Payment (APP) Fraud

  • APP fraud, where criminals convince customers to authorise a payment, saw losses of £249.1 million in the first half of 2022 - a 17% decrease compared to H1 2021.
  • Most APP fraud occurred via online platforms and social media.
  • Scammers used impersonation scams and romance scams to gain access to customers’ personal and financial information and gain authorisation for a payment.

Specific APP Scams

  • There were 95,219 incidents of APP scams resulting in gross losses of £249.1 million.
  • Impersonation scams (£90.5 million) and investment scams (£61.2 million) were the largest categories, with 44% and 25% of the total losses, respectively.
  • 53,782 cases of purchase scams accounted for 56% of the total number of APP scam cases.

Compensation to Customers

  • Despite the 11% increase in compensation returned to customers, totaling £140.1 million, much of the fraud originated from criminals using online and technology platforms.

Take Five to Stop Fraud

  • The financial industry continues to urge consumers to follow the Take Five to Stop Fraud campaign, which encourages them to stop, challenge, and protect themselves against potential scams.

UK Finance’s Response

  • UK Finance underscored the severity of the situation and urged for intensified collaboration among industries and continued cooperation with the government to address the issue at its source.

Quote from Katy Worobec

  • “Over £600 million stolen in financial fraud in just six months highlights the urgent need for collective action. We must not solely rely on the industry to protect consumers against these threats; cross-sector collaboration is crucial in tackling fraud and its root causes.” - Katy Worobec, Managing Director of Economic Crime at UK Finance.