Surge in UK fraud a national security threat, warn banks By Reuters

© Reuters. FILE PHOTO: The City of London financial district can be seen as people walk along the south side of the River Thames, amid the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak in London, Britain, March 19, 2021. REUTERS/Henry Nicholls/File Photo

By Iain Withers

LONDON (Reuters) – A surge in fraud attacks on consumers since the pandemic has become a ‘national security threat’ for Britain requiring government-coordinated action across industries, banking industry lobby group UK Finance has warned.

Financial fraud has rocketed during the pandemic as more consumers shop online and try digital banking and investing.

Criminals stole 754 million pounds ($1.03 billion) through bank frauds in the first half of this year, up 30% on the same period in 2020, according to a UK Finance report published on Wednesday.

Bank losses from authorised push payment (APP) fraud – where a customer is tricked into a payment by a criminal – also leapt 71% in the first half, overtaking the amount stolen through card fraud for the first time, UK Finance said.

Lenders have been pushing for tougher action on fraud by the government, regulators and other industries including online platforms exploited by fraudsters to target victims, as they grapple with a wave of increasingly sophisticated attacks.

The report found 70% of APP scams originated on an online platform and also found an increase in online adverts targeting people as young as 14 to become “money mules” for illicit funds.

The findings come ahead of a grilling of bosses from Facebook (NASDAQ:), Alphabet (NASDAQ:) Inc’s Google, Amazon (NASDAQ:) and eBay (NASDAQ:) on their efforts to combat economic crime by British lawmakers on the Treasury Select Committee later on Wednesday.

UK Finance called for government-coordinated action across sectors and for all economic crime to be covered by a planned Online Safety Bill, which currently excludes online advertisements.

“The level of fraud in the UK is such that it is now a national security threat,” Katy Worobec, managing director for economic crime at UK Finance said in the report. “The banking sector cannot solve this on its own.”

Bank security systems managed to prevent 736 million pounds from being stolen by fraudsters over the six month period, the report said.

Watchdog the Financial Conduct Authority said last week that consumers lost nearly 570 million pounds to investment fraud alone in the financial year to April – a sum that had tripled since 2018.

($1 = 0.7328 pounds)

Disclaimer: Fusion Media would like to remind you that the data contained in this website is not necessarily real-time nor accurate. All CFDs (stocks, indexes, futures) and Forex prices are not provided by exchanges but rather by market makers, and so prices may not be accurate and may differ from the actual market price, meaning prices are indicative and not appropriate for trading purposes. Therefore Fusion Media doesn`t bear any responsibility for any trading losses you might incur as a result of using this data.

Fusion Media or anyone involved with Fusion Media will not accept any liability for loss or damage as a result of reliance on the information including data, quotes, charts and buy/sell signals contained within this website. Please be fully informed regarding the risks and costs associated with trading the financial markets, it is one of the riskiest investment forms possible.

Be the first to comment

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.


*