Our latest Fraud report, in partnership with BioCatch, continues to show some progress as well as challenges in the fight again fraud, but the net effect was over £1.1 billion of losses in 2024.

Our latest figures show that Authorised Push Payment (APP) fraud, where victims are manipulated by criminals into sending them money, has fallen, both the total amount lost and the overall number of cases.

However, the data also shows that other types of fraud, notably remote purchase fraud, have increased. This demonstrates that criminals change tactics and, closing one vulnerability in isolation only leads them adapting and exploiting others.

Our report provides a full breakdown of cases and losses across all unauthorised and authorised fraud categories

OPEN REPORT

We know that fraudsters are often innovative in how they attack our organisations. There are many ways in which fraud is committed, and they are always changing - adapting to be increasingly successful. As always when dealing with fraud, we should think about our task in two parts - both taking action on fraud to reduce its impact, but also gaining an ever deeper understanding of the problem. The best innovations come from careful, forensic scrutiny of the problem it is seeking to solve, what is driving the problem and what the root causes are.

OPEN REPORT

Fraud continues to pose a major threat to the UK and cause serious harm to individuals and society. In the first half of 2024 just over £570 million was stolen in payment fraud as criminals continue to ruthlessly target people and try to deceive them into making payments or providing enough information to enable their accounts to be accessed or controlled.

UK Finance’s mid-year fraud update for 2024 shows the total number of cases rose by 16 per cent in the first half of this year compared with the same period last year, but with a 1.5 per cent fall in the value of losses across both authorised and unauthorised fraud. This provides a continuing reminder of the ongoing threat from fraudsters and the harm they pose to consumers.

In the first six months of 2024 the data shows diverging trends in unauthorised and authorised payment fraud. The main contributor to the overall increase in fraud cases is unauthorised fraud, primarily through cards, which saw a 19 per cent increase in cases and a seven per cent increase in losses compared with the same period last year. This takes H1 losses for unauthorised card fraud to the highest level since 2020, and 2024 H1 cases were the highest since the first six months of 2018.

OPEN REPORT

A groundbreaking report by Perpetuity Research and the Centre for Cybercrime and Economic Crime at the University of Portsmouth has uncovered a critical oversight in the fight against economic crime. Despite soaring levels of these offences, police forces are not fully utilising the vast resources and expertise available in the private and not-for-profit sectors. Even with significant underreporting, the volume of offences has placed a strain on police resources and this has served to undermine the ability of law enforcement to respond effectively. Meanwhile, parts of the private and not-for profit sectors dedicate significant resources to combatting economic crime. Banks and insurance companies for example, employ thousands of staff in antifraud roles. This expertise is largely invisible to the police, representing a massive, wasted opportunity.

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A warning has been made over the risks of food fraud which is costing the UK up to £2 billion per year after Food Standards Scotland and the Food Standard Agency published their latest Food Crime Strategic Assessment. Although the report found that the majority of food in the UK is safe and authentic, they do have concerns over the threat of food crime. Blame has largely been placed on huge recent geopolitical events around the world which have caused disruption in the food chain and left it open to fraud. Those events, such as the Covid-19 pandemic, Russian’s invasion of Ukraine and Israel’s attacks on Palestine, have increased the risk of food crime.

Document fraud is observed as a common thread through many aspects of food crime, being utilised for example to outwardly legitimise illicit products resulting from thefts, unlawful processes or those which are being sold at a premium price after adulteration or substitution with substandard commodities.

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OPEN ALERT

OPEN ALERT

OPEN ALERT

OPEN ALERT

We saw some small reductions in the amount stolen through payment fraud in 2023, but with losses of nearly £1.2 billion it remains a major problem and threat to the UK.

The damage this crime does is huge. The organised criminals and other threat actors who perpetrate these awful crimes cause serious harm to individuals, to society and to our country.

Fraud in all its forms continues to represent over 40 per cent of reported crime. That is the scale of the challenge we continue to face

Click here to read Report