Total financial fraud losses in the UK during the first half of 2016 increased by 25% to £399.5m, across payment cards, remote banking and cheques, reveals new data issued by the Financial Fraud Action UK (FFA UK).
Losses on payment cards including remote purchase fraud, lost and stolen cards, card not received, counterfeit card and card ID theft, grew by 31% to £321.5m, against £244.6m in the first half of 2015.
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The FFA data shows that the prevented loss for cards stood at £475.7m.
Between January and June period, remote purchase fraud increased by 31% to £224.1m, compared to £171.7m during H1 2015, the report said.
Banks’ security systems continued to prevent the majority of fraud from taking place, with prevented fraud totalling £678.7m, according to FFA UK. This is equivalent to £6 in every £10 of attempted fraud being stopped.
There was a little boost in remote banking losses, up from £66.2m in the first half of 2015, to £70.6m, with a prevented loss of £103.2m.
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By GlobalDataFFA UK director Katy Worobec said: “Banks use a range of robust security systems to protect their customers but as these systems become more sophisticated, criminals have increasingly been turning to scams and exploiting data breaches to con victims out of their personal and security information, as well as money.
“Banks will continue to invest in advanced verification methods, including biometric validation and dynamic card security codes. We ask all consumers to be alert to scammers, which is why we recently launched the Take Five campaign.
“The industry takes its responsibility to combat fraud extremely seriously, but banks cannot stop all fraud on their own. It is essential all organisations with a role to play work together to better protect individuals and companies.”
In order to prevent data breaches in future, the FFA UK has also requested all organisations that manage personal and financial data to improve their security systems, and urged customers to be careful of any unsolicited phone calls, text messages and emails.
