How £1.1bn was lost to fraud in 2024 as purchase scams soar

Fraud continues to blight the nation with more than £1billion stolen by criminals in 2024 for the second year in a row, according to new figures from UK Finance. 

Britons lost £1.17billion to fraud last year, a figure which remains at similar levels to 2023 when £1.2billion was stolen. 

UK Finance divides fraud into two categories: authorised and unauthorised.

Authorised fraud is when someone is tricked into paying money to a scammer’s account, or handing over a password. 

In other words, they take some kind of action or volunteer information which makes the fraud possible.

Unauthorised fraud refers to cases where the victim is not directly involved, for example purchases being made on a stolen credit card – this type of activity jumped last year.

When this happens, banks and credit card companies are legally obliged to protect them from losses. But within the last year they have also had to reimburse victims of authorised fraud. 

In October 2024 the Payment Systems Regulator (PSR) introduced new reimbursement rules for APP scam victims. 

In total, £267.1million of APP fraud was reimbursed to victims by banks in 2024, around 59 per cent of all money stolen from APP fraud. 

When the new rules came into force on 7 October 2024, within first three months of the rules being in place 86 per cent of money stolen through APP fraud was returned to victims. 

Unauthorised fraud makes up bulk of fraud losses

Within the total figure of £1.2billion, unauthorised fraud losses reached £722million in 2024, up 2 per cent on to 2023. While cases of unauthorised reports climbed to 3.13million in 2024, up 14 per cent on 2023. 

UK Finance said the rise in cases and losses was due to a jump in remote purchase fraud, a trend 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 22 per cent to nearly 2.6million, and losses increased 11 per cent to just under £400million.

Card ID theft – which involves stealing personal details – saw cases and losses drop after a spike in 2023. Losses fell 26 per cent to £58.7million, with case volumes falling 23 per cent to just over 109,000.

Contactless card fraud losses fell 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.

Banks stopped £1.45billion of unauthorised fraud losses in their tracks through impletmenting advanced security systems. 

Yet Santander’s fraud boss said Chris Ainsley said £1billion being lost to fraud in 2024 was ‘a real let down’. 

He said: ‘while banks prevented that figure more than doubling by the amount of unauthorised fraud they stopped; it is yet another clear sign that we need significantly more cross industry collaboration to put the brakes on this harrowing crime.’

APP fraud cases ease to lowest level since 2020

APP fraud losses dropped in 2024, falling two per cent to £450.7million. 

The number of APP fraud cases fell by 20 per cent to under 186,000 – the lowest figure since 2020.

UK Finance said the drop was driven by banks investing in technology that can identify and flag fraudulent activity and raising awareness of scams among customer. 

Investment fraud – when a criminal convinces their victim to move their money to a fictitious fund or to pay for a fake investment – was responsible for the most APP fraud losses. 

Some £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.

Purchase scams, when a victim pays in advance for goods or services that never arrive, continues to be the most common type of authorised fraud. 

Purchase scam losses rose by one per cent to £87.1 million, though case numbers fell 16 per cent.

The number of impersonation scams, where criminals impersonate a bank or the police and convince someone to transfer money, fell again in 2024 with losses and case numbers dropping 16 per cent and 32 per cent respectively.

There was an uptick in international payments made as part of APP fraud, with criminals likely trying to get people to send money outside of the UK. International payments accounted for 11 per cent of APP losses in 2024, up from 6 per cent in 2023.

The report found that 70 per cent of of authorised push payment cases started online – for example on a website or social media, and 16 per cent emerged through telecoms networks. 

Fraud remains ‘chronically unreported’ 

Under reporting of fraud remains a problem when it comes to fraud prevention. 

One in seven are exposed to potentially fraudulent suspicious emails every day. Yet 43 per cent of people wouldn’t report fraud if they were the victim or witnessed it, research from Nationwide found. 

Nationwide fraud boss Jim Winters says: ‘While it’s positive to see authorised push payment cases coming down following regulatory changes and investment in technology, fraud related crimes remain chronically unreported.’