Over half a billion pounds (£580m) has been stolen through authorised and unauthorised fraud in the first half of 2023, UK Finance has reported.

As part of its half-year fraud report, it found that the amount stolen by criminals through these means has fallen by 2% compared to the same period in 2022.

The report also highlighted that 77% of authorised push payment (APP) fraud started online, including social media and search engine scams, with a further 17% starting through telecommunications networks, including impersonation fraud, which accounts for 45% of total losses.

The number of romance scams, where victims are tricked into believing they are in a relationship, rose by 29% and the amount lost to this kind of fraud rose by 26% year-on-year to £18.5m.

Managing director of economic crime at UK Finance, Ben Donaldson, said: “In the first six months of this year ruthless criminals had already stolen more than half a billion pounds from victims through fraud. In addition to the financial losses, these crimes often involve callous manipulation of the victim which can cause psychological and emotional harm.

“As the UK Finance report shows, criminals are increasingly using social media, online platforms, texts, phone calls and emails to deceive victims into giving up their personal details and their money.

“The financial services sector continues to lead the fight against these awful crimes. We are also currently the only sector that reimburses victims. However, it is impossible to reimburse the human impact of these crimes: we must prevent it from happening in the first place. The only way we will prevent fraud is if other sectors do much more to help us deal with the criminality which is increasingly taking place on their platforms.”

Furthermore, the report said that banks prevented a further £651m of unauthorised fraud from being stolen using advanced security systems in the first half of 2023.

In H1 2023, the number of fraud cases where criminals impersonated a bank or the police and tried to convince someone to transfer money to a ‘safe account’ fell by 35%, with the amount lost from this type of fraud also falling by 27%.

The amount of losses as a result of unauthorised transactions across payment cards, remote banking and cheques also fell by 3% to £340.7m in the first half of the year, with the number of recorded cases standing at 1.26 million, which is a drop of 10%.

Managing director at SmartSearch and qualified lawyer, Martin Cheek, added: "The report highlights the effectiveness of advanced security systems that have prevented an additional £651 million in unauthorised fraud. This is a testament to the financial services sector's ongoing efforts to protect its customers - but it is clear that there is more work to be done.

"As the report correctly points out, the financial services sector is at the forefront of anti-fraud efforts, with established collaborations with other sectors, the government, and law enforcement. That said, the fight against these criminal gangs is a collective responsibility that extends to all regulated firms.

“Technology is playing an increasingly vital role in preventing these crimes and the money laundering that is an inevitable consequence of them.

“Regulated firms must continue to invest in electronic verification to help protect their customers from fraud – and themselves from the fines and reputational damage which comes from anti-money laundering breaches.”

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