(28th January 2011 – UK) The British financial services industry loses around £3.6 billion (A$5.76 billion) a year to fraudsters, around 10 percent of the entire fraud cost to the UK economy.The National Fraud Authority (NFA) says that financial services accounted for the largest chunk of a £12 billion fraud loss attributed to the private sector during a year.
However, the figure was down slightly on the previous year’s figure of £3.8 billion, thanks to improved fraud prevention methods involving plastic cards – resulting in a cut of £440 million – and cheque fraud – £30 million.
In contrast, online banking saw an increase of 14 percent, to £60 million.
The NFA attributes this to criminals using more sophisticated methods to target customers through malware and a spike in phishing incidents.
Overall, £38.4 billion is lost in fraud a year, equivalent to £765 for every UK adult.
The public sector continues to account for the highest proportion of this at £21 billion – 55 percent of the total – although the NFA says this is in part because of more diligent reporting. Individuals account for £4 billion and charities £1.3 billion.
Bernard Herdan, chief executive, NFA, said that the NFA is working with its partners to promote greater fraud awareness and self-protection, encourage organisations to adopt fraud proof systems, enable fraud reporting and facilitate better sharing of intelligence on fraudsters. We want to develop a stronger counter fraud culture, which helps to disrupt fraudulent activity across the UK and globally.’