New figures have revealed that greater than £1.3 billion was stolen final yr by con artists. A few of this staggering quantity was the results of authorised push fee scams (APP). That is when victims are tricked into making a fee.
The sort of fraud rose sharply in 2021, with the quantity misplaced to fraudsters reaching a surprising £583.2 million – a 39% improve on 2020. The analysis, performed by UK Finance, a banking trade organisation, additionally discovered that there have been 195,996 incidents of APP fraud final yr. That is up 27% on the earlier yr.
With a bigger variety of individuals spending longer on the web, doing extra on-line purchasing than ever and dealing from house, victims have change into extra vulnerable to such scams.
Practically 40% of the APP fraud losses had been the results of impersonation scams. In these such scams, criminals faux to be a trusted contact, akin to a financial institution or charity organisation. They trick victims into transferring their cash into a brand new account. This cash is then stolen, with many individuals left within the lurch. In 2021 alone, a whopping £214.8 million was stolen utilizing these strategies.
Fraudsters endeavor impersonation scams additionally used the pandemic to their benefit, impersonating the NHS and authorities organisations so as to steal individuals’s hard-earned cash. Victims had been lured in by way of rip-off texts, emails, telephone calls and social media posts, with some criminals going so far as to create pretend web sites which look virtually equivalent to official, trusted web sites.
On the subject of funding scams, £171.7 million was stolen in whole in 2021, an unbelievable 57% bounce in comparison with 2020. This makes funding scams the second largest class of APP fraud losses.
Many victims additionally had their cash stolen by way of buy scams. That is when somebody is tricked into shopping for one thing which doesn’t truly exist. That is an especially frequent kind of fraud. Chances are you’ll effectively have fallen sufferer to a rip-off akin to this prior to now. Instances of buy scams had been up 18% in 2021 in comparison with the earlier yr, with virtually 100,000 individuals falling sufferer. The losses are estimated to have reached £64.1 million, a rise of 25% on 2020.
Romance scams soared by an astonishing 73% in 2021. The sort of rip-off occurs when a prison befriends a sufferer and enters right into a romantic relationship with them. The principle aim is to ask the sufferer for cash. Victims misplaced £30.9 million by way of romance scams final yr.
Total, solely £271.2 million was returned to victims of APP fraud – this accounts for 47% of whole losses.
