Latest Figures Reveal Increase in Financial Fraud

The latest figures from Financial Fraud Action UK show that financial fraud losses across payment cards, remote banking and cheques totalled £768.8 million in 2016, which is an increase of 2% compared to the previous year.

Impersonation and deception scams, as well as online attacks to compromise data, continued to be the primary drivers behind financial fraud losses in 2016. In all of these methods criminals target personal and financial information, including card data, which is then used to facilitate fraud.

The 2016 financial fraud data shows:

• Losses due to payment card fraud were £618.0 million, an increase of 9% from £567.5 million in 2015. A total of £982.4 million of attempted card fraud was prevented by banks and card companies, equivalent to £6.10 in every £10 of fraud being stopped.
• Within the overall card fraud figures, losses on card purchases made remotely increased by 9% to £432.3 million.
• Remote banking fraud losses totalled £137.1 million, a 19% decrease from £168.6 million in 2015. A total of £205.4 million of attempted remote banking fraud losses were prevented, equivalent to £6 in every £10 of fraud being stopped.
• Cheque fraud losses fell by 28% to £13.7 million, the lowest ever annual total. A total of £196.2 million of attempted cheque fraud was prevented, equivalent to £9.40 in every £10 of fraud being stopped.
• There were a total of 1,857,506 cases of financial fraud.

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