The most common types of scam that are costing Brits billions a year

THE latest research  by finance specialists, RIFT, has revealed that while Brits remain most susceptible to scams involving their payment cards, remote banking or investments, there's been a sharp increase in criminals using CEO fraud to swindle unsuspecting victims out of millions during the Pandemic.

Fraudsters conned hard working Brits out of £1.2bn in 2023, the majority of which (£726.9m) came via unauthorised scams such as payment card fraud and remote banking scams.

In fact, these 2 types of scam were by far the most common, accounting for 46% and 14% of total losses respectively.

However, the figures show that the total stolen via these unauthorised scams has actually fallen by -7% over the last 2 years, whilst more worryingly, the number of authorised scams has climbed by 15% since 2020.
 

Table shows losses due to each type of fraud in 2022 and the proportion of total each accounted for:-
Category	Fraud type	Est total losses in 2022 (£m)	Proportion %
Unauthorised	Payment cards	£556.3	46%
Unauthorised	Remote banking	£163.1	13%
Authorised	Investment scam	£114.1	9%
Authorised	Impersonation - Police / bank staff	£109.8	9%
Authorised	Impersonation - other	£67.8	6%
Authorised	Purchase scam	£67.0	6%
Authorised	invoice and mandate scame	£49.5	4%
Authorised	Advance fee fraud	£32.2	3%
Authorised	Romance scam	£31.3	3%
Authorised	CEO fraud	£13.4	1%
Unauthorised	Cheque	£7.5	1%
All	Total - overall	£1,212.0	100.0%

The most common authorised scam is investment fraud, where criminals will trick you into investing your money into a fake investment opportunity, accounting for 9% of the total losses seen last year. But while investment fraud may be the most common type of authorised scam, the 15% increase seen since 2020 has been driven by a rise in CEO fraud. CEO fraud is when a scammer pretends to be a senior company executive in order to persuade someone into providing sensitive personal information and since the start of the Pandemic it's estimated that total losses have increased by 179%.

There has also been a notable 76% increase in romance scams during the Pandemic, whereby criminals go to great lengths to gain a victims trust, usually under the guise of starting a relationship, before they're conned out of their hard earned cash.

Losses due to advance fee fraud, where victims are duped into paying for something upfront that never arrives, are up 45% since 2020, while purchase scams, impersonations and investment scams have also seen an increase.

Bradley Post, MD of RIFT, commented:- "While unauthorised scams remain by far the most common, the good news is that there has been a decline in losses over the last 2 years which suggests it's becoming harder for fraudsters to access our hard earned money. Of course, the flip side is that they are becoming increasingly devious in their attempts and this has seen a significant increase in losses due to authorised fraud, whereby unsuspecting victims actually provide their sensitive information to scammers. CEO fraud has seen the largest increase in this respect, along with romance scams and so while they are far less common, the public should be aware of these scams and the fact they are becoming more widely utilised by criminals."

Check out RIFT's top tips to spot and report scammers at:- RIFTRefunds.Co.UK.
 

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