An estimated £1.17bn was stolen through fraud in the UK last year, a new report published by UK Finance has shown.

The banking body revealed that the figure, which represented a 4% compared to 2022, was comprised of £708.7m in unauthorised fraud, and £459.7m in authorised fraud.

In an unauthorised fraudulent transaction, the account holder does not provide authorisation for the payment to proceed and the transaction is carried out by a third-party. For an authorised fraudulent transaction, the account holder is tricked into sending money to a fraudster posing as a genuine payee.

UK Finance suggested that the latest annual figure for fraud, which was down from pandemic highs, was helped by a total of £1.2bn of unauthorised fraud being prevented last year – a figure that equates to 64p of every £1 attempted.

The banking body’s latest report also revealed that 2023 saw 2.97 million confirmed cases of attempted fraud. An estimated 2.73 million of these were unauthorised fraud attempts, representing a fall of 2% on 2022. However, authorised fraud attempts totalled 232,429 last year, which was a 12% increase.

Director of personal finance at AJ Bell, Laura Suter, commented: “While total fraud figures have dropped, we’ve seen an increase in the amount stolen through ‘authorised’ scams, where people are tricked into sending the money themselves, since before the pandemic.

“Between 2020 and 2023 there was a 9% increase in the amount of money stolen through authorised scams, but a huge 50% increase in the number of people being scammed this way. The figures highlight how scammers are targeting more victims for smaller amounts of money.”

Suter added: “What is reassuring is that victims are more likely to be reimbursed by banks for their losses. A total of 64p for every £1 stolen was reimbursed to victims, up from 59p in the £1 a year earlier. However, it still means that more than a third of money stolen is never recovered, and victims have to stomach these often life-changing losses.

“These figures all have to be taken with a pinch of salt – as we know that the official fraud stats are the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the true scale of fraud in the UK.”

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