More than one in ten people in the UK (12.1%) have been the victim of payments fraud in the last four years, according to new research from global payments company ACI Worldwide.
Its report found that online fraud and digital wallet hacks make up 20% of UK fraud cases, while the number of those falling victim to confidence tricks has increased to 12.8% of all fraud cases.
ACI Worldwide highlighted that new fraud trends, such as digital account hacking, social engineering and identity theft, have reached pandemic levels in the UK.
UK Finance recently revealed that British fraud victims lost £1.3bn in 2021 alone amid a surge in online fraud, with a nearly 40% rise in authorised push payment (APP) scams. APP scams involve fraudsters tricking their victims into willingly making large bank transfers to them. These are often through social media networks or unsolicited phone calls.
The UK is not alone in the rising level of fraud. The report highlighted similar trends in Europe and around the world. For example, in France, 13% of the population have reported being a victim of fraud in the past four years and cases of confidence trickery increased to 11.5%.
In Italy, 11.7% of the population have been a victim of fraud and social engineering now accounts for 15.7% of all fraud cases.
Looking outside of Europe, there has been a 13.7% rise in confidence trickery in India and 41% of the population have fallen victim to fraud in the last four years.
ACI Worldwide director – fraud product management Jackie Barwell said, “A radical rethink of fraud fighting strategies and industry-wide collaboration is required to bring the situation under control. It is an issue that banks cannot solve on their own any longer.
“Financial service providers, social media giants, telco companies and enforcement agencies all need to work together to stop fraudsters in their tracks before the fraudulent transactions take place. The answer to fighting fraud will not be found by working in isolation.”
ACI Worldwide recently extended its partnership with IR, a performance management and analytics platform for payment ecosystems. The deal provides ACI with enriched end-to-end enterprise transaction monitoring.
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