The monetary damage caused by authorized push payment scams in 2017 among UK consumers was finally revealed to the public for the first time.
The figures released to the media shows that UK consumers lost £236 million to authorized push payment scams in 2017, the first year that Britain’s banks have reported data on the fraudulent activity, in which bank customers are duped into transferring cash to criminal accounts.
Based on the figures released to the public there were 43,875 reported cases of authorized push payment scams with a total value of £236.0 million.
Eighty-eight per cent of this total are retail consumers, losing an average of £2,784, and the remainder were businesses who lost on average £24,355 per case.
On the plus side, financial providers were able to return £60.8 million (26%) of the authorized push payment scam losses in 2017.
The data were gathered by the Financial Conduct Authority among some banks in the UK. In its investigation, the FCA discovered that banks’ procedures were inconsistent, their existing fraud detection systems could not easily detect APP scams, and they didn’t collect enough data.
The FCA said financial providers were able to return £60.8 million (26%) of the authorised push payment scam losses in 2017.
The FCA added that banks and card companies also prevented £1,458.6 million in unauthorised financial fraud last year, equivalent to £2 in every £3 of attempted fraud being stopped, the latest data from UK Finance shows.
Furthermore, the FCA explained that while fraud losses on payment cards and cheques saw declines, by eight percent and 27% respectively, losses due to unauthorized remote banking fraud totaled £156.1 million, a 14% rise on 2016.
