Huge sums have been stolen through fraud and scams according to a new report by UK Finance, the financial services trade body.
It says criminals stole £1.17 billion through unauthorised and authorised fraud in 2024, broadly unchanged from 2023. Most of these started by scam messages sent by email or online.
There were 3.13 million confirmed cases of unauthorised fraud reported in 2024 (up 14 per cent compared to 2023) and losses totalled £722 million in 2024 (up two per cent).
One of the main reasons for the rise was an increase in remote purchase fraud, which had been falling in recent years. In this type of fraud criminals use stolen card details to buy something on the internet, over the phone or through mail order. Overall, remote purchase fraud case numbers increased by 22 per cent to nearly 2.6 million, and losses increased 11 per cent to just under £400 million.
The biggest amount of losses came from investment fraud, which occurs when a criminal convinces their victim to move their money to a fictitious fund or to pay for a fake investment. £144.4 million was stolen through this type of fraud in 2024, an increase of 34 per cent from 2023, despite a 24 per cent reduction in cases.
Card ID theft saw cases and losses fall back after a spike in 2023. Losses fell 26 per cent to £58.7 million, with case volumes falling 23 per cent to just over 109,000.
Contactless fraud losses decreased by one per cent; the first time a reduction has been reported for this category since 2020. Remote banking losses also fell by seven per cent, with cases dropping by 17 per cent.
Ben Donaldson, Managing Director of Economic Crime at UK Finance, says: “Fraud continues to blight this country, with over £1 billion stolen by criminals in 2024. This causes severe harm to individuals, society and our economy as the stolen money goes to serious organised crime groups, both here and abroad.
“The financial services industry works tirelessly to protect customers and prevent billions more being stolen by fraudsters, but we know that criminals are always looking for new ways to exploit victims.
“To deal with this threat, we need a more proactive approach with the public and private sectors working more closely together and using data and intelligence more effectively. We also need the technology and telecommunication sectors to step up and actually fight the fraud originating on their platforms and networks.”
