The UK fraud epidemic shows no signs of slowing down. Consumers have never been more vulnerable to scams and fraud attacks, as criminals look to take advantage and exploit people’s personal information and worries.
Consumers must be equipped with the necessary knowledge to stay vigilant of the potential impact of growing fraud and new identity threats. Here are six trends that we expect to see develop in the UK over the course of 2023.
Authorised Push Payment (APP) Fraud
Authorised Push Payment (or APP) Fraud is a scam involving a fraudster tricking victims into willingly making authorised bank transfers to them.
Research from UK Finance shows that APP fraud was up 30% in the first half of 2022 compared to the same period in 2021. As the cost-of-living crisis persists, we expect to see APP fraud accelerate significantly this year, with fraudsters finding new ways
to defraud their victims with fake emails, websites, and social media posts. Stressed consumers are, of course, more vulnerable with promises of easy return on their “investments” as well.
Within the APP landscape, certain types of fraud are growing especially rapidly. Losses related to romance scams, for example, are up by 31% for the first half of 2022 compared to the same period last year, while ‘purchase scams’ – where consumers are conned
into paying for goods they believe to be genuine – are happening with greater frequency than ever, accounting for 56% of all APP scams.
Crypto and…
