Fraud has become more and more sophisticated in recent times, with more than £500 million stolen from customers of British banks in the first half of 2018. This is why protecting yourself from fraud is particularly important. There are two different types of fraud – authorised and unauthorised. It is important to distinguish which cases are authorised push payment scams and unauthorised transactions, as this will affect wether you will be refunded by the bank.

Unauthorised Fraud

Unauthorised fraud totalled £385 million in the first half of 2018. This type of fraud is committed without the account holders knowledge. Unauthorised fraud might occur through payment cards, remote banking and cheques. Banks will refund most cases without delay once they are made aware of the fraud. This is due to the fact they are liable for any losses that occur for a payment the bank have authorised. You may be refused the refund if you appear to have authorised the payment, you have acted fraudulently yourself, acted with gross negligence, or make the claim 13 months or more after the date it left the account.

Authorised Push Payments

Authorised Push Payments (APP) scams are responsible for a £145m loss, a 44% increase since 2017. APP scams occur when people are conned into sending money into an account, making it an authorised transaction. Protecting yourself from fraud which has been authorised is vital as most victims will not get their money back. Criminals use a range of social engineering tactics to commit APP scams, which is why victims have to be extra vigilant to these tricks. Criminals will usually pose as a genuine person or organisation and reach out to a victim, and con them into transferring money to an account.

Different Types of APP Scams

One common APP scam is purchase scams, in which a victim pays for a service or good, but never actually receives anything for their payment. Investments scams are also an increasing scam tactic, in which criminals convince their victims into investing in a fund which does not actually exist. Criminals will also impersonate officials, such as bank staff and police officials, who convince the victims to make a payment to them.

Best Ways of Protecting Yourself From Fraud

There are a number of tips that you can follow in order to prevent fraud happening to you. Firstly, you should never disclose any security details with anyone, such as a PIN number. You should be cautious when getting an email, phone call, text, or any type of message, as they might not be genuine. You should also be vigilant that none of your communications sound similar to existing types of APP scams.

A large proportion of fraud is stamped out before it is ever completed, however. £705.7 million of fraud was detected and prevented by banks and card companies in the first half of 2018. The finance industry is continuously working on improving the prevention of fraud.

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