Bank Services: Fraud

(asked on 11th March 2021) - View Source

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many cases of online banking fraud against individuals there were in each year since 2015.


Answered by
Kevin Foster Portrait
Kevin Foster
This question was answered on 19th March 2021

ONS figures on fraud are broken down into ‘Bank and credit account fraud’, ‘Consumer and retail fraud’, ‘Advance fee fraud’ and ‘Other fraud’. There is no specific breakdown relating to online banking fraud, although last year (March 2020) 53% of all fraud incidents estimated by the CSEW were thought to be cyber-related.

Office of National Statistics: Cheque, plastic card and online bank accounts (not PSP) fraud reports, however, it’s worth nothing this will include individual victim reports and reports from businesses

Year ending September 2015

269,709

Year ending September 2016

284,743

Year ending September 2017

286,979

Year ending September 2018

270,154

Year ending September 2019

325,436

Year ending September 2020

311,625

The Government takes all forms of fraud very seriously and continues to work closely with the banking and finance industry, consumer protection and victim support groups to prevent scams by closing down the vulnerabilities fraudsters exploit in order and to ensure the victim remains at the centre of our considerations by making sure they are better protected.

The Government’s ambitious Economic Crime Plan (ECP) sets out the significant action we are taking in close conjunction with the private sector to combat all economic crimes.

The ECP sets out 7 priority areas agreed in January 2019 by the Economic Crime Strategic Board, the ministerial level public-private board charged with setting the UK’s strategic priorities for combatting economic crime and strengthening the powers and capabilities of law enforcement, powers, the justice system and private sector to detect, deter and disrupt https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/economic-crime-plan-2019-to-2022

We are also investing more to tackle economic crime. The 2020 Spending Review announced an increase in the Government’s efforts to combat economic crime by providing an additional £30.5 million in resource and £32.5 million in capital funding in 2021/22, including support for the National Economic Crime Centre (NECC) and City of London Police as national lead force for fraud.

We have also launched the Suspicious Email Reporting Service, run by the National Cyber Security Centre, which enables the public to report scams and anything appearing suspicious. Already over 5 million reports have been received, leading to over 36,000 scams taken down from the internet and the closure of over 71,000 harmful websites.

The Financial Conduct Agency (FCA) requires banks to maintain effective systems and controls to prevent the risk they might be used for financial crime. The protection for consumers who fall victim to fraudulent transactions is set out in the Payment Services Regulations 2017 which state a customer who claims they did not authorise a transaction on their account must receive a refund from their bank, unless the bank has reasonable grounds to suspect the customer is liable for the transaction (for example due to customer fraud or gross negligence).

The Government is committed to tackling fraud and ensuring victims of Authorised Push Payment (APP) scams are protected. The Payment Systems Regulator (PSR) published a call for views on APP scams in February 2021 which set out various measures which could deliver a higher level of protection for consumers. The Government looks forward to engaging with the outcomes of the PSR's call for views, including considering what further actions may be necessary to make progress on this issue.

Finally, it remains important the public reports fraud to Action Fraud either by phone on 0300 123 2040 or via:

http://www.actionfraud.police.uk/report_fraud.

Scam emails and texts can be reported by texting your mobile provide on 7726 or forwarding suspicious emails to report@phishing.gov.uk.

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