Record Number of Britons Fell for Financial Frauds in 2024, but Total Loss Didn’t Increase

Britons lost £1.17 billion (around $1.6 billion) to financial frauds and scams in 2024, an amount that remained unchanged from the previous year, according to the latest data from industry body UK Finance. However, the number of fraud cases jumped by 12 per cent to a record 3.31 million.

Card Details Are Getting Stolen

The number of incidents increased with the rise in purchasing items online using stolen bank card details. This is also seen as a shifting tactic by fraudsters, who in many cases trick card owners into disclosing their one-time passcode.

The number of such remote purchase frauds increased by 22 per cent to nearly 2.6 million last year. Losses from these frauds also rose by 11 per cent to about £400 million. However, as victims of unauthorised losses are legally protected, more than 98 per cent of such victims received a full refund.

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Authorised push payment (APP) frauds, in which victims are tricked into transferring funds directly to fraudsters, dropped by about 20 per cent last year. UK Finance registered about 186,000 cases of such fraud in 2024, the lowest since 2020.

Losses from APP frauds came in at £450 million, a 2 per cent yearly decline.

The largest contributor to APP fraud remained investment fraud, where fraudsters lure victims into “too good to be true” fake investment schemes. This type of fraud siphoned £144.4 million from Britons, a 34 per cent yearly rise but with a reduction in the number of cases.

There was a “notable increase” in international payments made as part of APP fraud. Such payments accounted for 11 per cent of APP fraud in 2024, compared to 6 per cent the previous year.

Victims Are Getting Reimbursed

Under the new rules of the Payment Systems Regulator (PSR), banks must cover the losses of fraud victims who are tricked into transferring funds to criminals. For APP fraud, the reimbursement limit is set at £85,000, but banks can choose to return higher amounts.

Because of these protection rules, £267.1 million stolen through APP fraud was returned to victims.

“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,” said Ben Donaldson, Managing Director of Economic Crime at UK Finance.

“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.”