The banking industry experienced a 14% jump in attempted fraud in the first half of the year, compared to 2018.
That is according to UK Finance, the industry body. In total, the financial industry prevented fraud attempts worth £820m, representing £4.5m per day, in the period.
However, not all attempts were prevented as the criminals got away with £408m through unauthorized card, remote banking and cheque fraud.
Some of the methods used included getting customer data by hacking third parties outside of the financial sector, launching sophisticated digital skimming attacks and using social engineering to trick people to divulge sensitive information.
Katy Worobec, managing director of economic crime at UK Finance, said, “Not only does fraud have a devastating impact on victims, the money stolen goes on to line the pockets of organised criminal gangs involved in drugs, arms and human trafficking. The finance industry is constantly investing in advanced security systems to protect customers from this threat, while helping law enforcement to apprehend and disrupt the criminals responsible.
“A new voluntary code was introduced in May that has significantly improved consumer protections from authorized push payment fraud, with signatory firms committed to reimbursing victims providing they have met certain standards.
“However, criminals are continuing to exploit vulnerabilities outside the financial sector to obtain customers’ data that is then used to commit fraud. We all have a responsibility to work together, including online retailers and social media companies, to beat the fraudsters and keep customers’ data secure.”
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