Financial Scams Against UK Consumers, Biz Up 16 Pct

Financial scams perpetrated against U.K. households and companies increased 16 percent in 2018, according to new data.

The Financial Times, citing the trade body UK Finance, reported bad guys were able to steal £1.2bn last year, up from £967m in 2017. The uptick in fraud comes as banks wrestle with fighting data breaches, some of which are high-profile and are shaking consumers’ confidence.

The report also found that in 2018, there was an increase in traditional unauthorized fraud, in which customers are tricked into transferring money to criminals. Banks were able to stop two-thirds of those attacks, the report noted, which is in line with the prior year. However, the pace and number of attacks increased last year.

UK Finance also found that theft of financial and personal information via social engineering was a big contributor to the fraud losses. According to the report, the social engineering successes were due to data breaches outside of the financial sector.

“Every business, from online retailers to social media companies, as well as the public sector, has a duty to work together to beat fraud and prevent stolen data [from] getting into the hands of criminals,” Katy Worobec, UK Finance managing director of economic crime, told the newswire.

UK Finance found that authorized or push payment fraud jumped 50 percent year over year. That occurs when the criminal gets someone to transfer money by pretending to be a trusted figure. Rates of that type of fraud have been increasing over the years, as authorities clamp down on more traditional ways of stealing money from consumers. With push payment fraud, it is traditionally harder for customers to be compensated. The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) recently enacted rules making it easier for customers to get compensated after getting tricked into transferring money.