True scale of payment fraud in UK is EIGHT TIMES higher than previously thought, shock report reveals
THE true scale of payment fraud in the UK is eight times higher than previously thought, a shocking report claims.
Financial regulators previously believed fraud through Authorised Push Payments cost Brits £380m a year but a new study puts the losses at £3billion.
The report, penned by the Parliamentary Group on Fair Banking, exposes how banks have been too slow to clamp down on scammers.
Experts at the National Fraud Helpline also found customers are now making more payments to scammers during each fraud swindle.
During romance scams, where hoaxers convince singles to send money to an internet partner, the number of payments has soared from 5.5 in 2020 to 10.8 in 2024.
In investment scams, where supposed financial experts convince Brits to part with their life savings, the average number of payments went from 2.4 to 3.6 in the same period.
MPs have now joined calls for the government to do more to tackle payment frauds, which make up four in ten reported crimes.
Only two per cent of police resources across the country are dedicated to tackling it, while Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp have also been told to step up.
Former fraud investigator and Labour MP Phil Brickell said: “The findings of this report reconfirm my gravest fear – that fraud is one of the biggest challenges facing our country today.
“Banks spend billions of pounds every year trying to contain the problem.
“But given the prevalence of fraudsters on social media platforms, tech firms in particular need to go much further to protect consumers and businesses.”
Martin Richardson, a partner at Ricardson Hartley Law, which runs the National Fraud Helpline website, said: “The data on payments per case isolates a key performance metric for banks and payment service providers, the requirement to identify and stop frauds in real-time.
“The fact that it is going up rather than down strongly suggests that on this metric banks are not having more success in stopping APP fraud. They are having less.”
“We see the human misery caused by the fraudsters on a daily basis. Lives are being ruined financially and emotionally.
“We’ve dubbed it a “scamdemic” and much more needs to be done to protect the public.
“Our fear is that as scammers adopt more technology this figure is only set to rise. Everyone needs to do more.
“This can’t just be left to the banks. We have become too accepting as a society that we are constantly being targeted by fraudsters.”