28-05-2025
Over £1bn stolen by fraudsters in 2024
Criminals stole £1.17 billion through fraud in the UK last year, with a slight fall in authorised push payment fraud losses offset by a rise in remote purchase fraud.
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Overall losses in 2024 were broadly unchanged from the previous year, according to figures from UK Finance.
There were 3.13 million confirmed cases of unauthorised fraud reported, up 14% compared to 2023, and losses totalled £722 million, up two per cent.
After falling in previous years, remote purchase fraud - where criminals use stolen card details to buy something on the internet, over the phone or through mail order - was up by 22% to nearly 2.6 million, with losses increasing 11% to just under £400 million.
In contrast, card ID theft saw cases and losses fall back after a spike in 2023, while
contactless fraud losses fell by one per cent, the first time a reduction has been reported for this category since 2020. Remote banking losses also fell by seven per cent, with cases dropping by 17%.
APP fraud, which has dominated the headlines in recent years thanks to soaring losses, was down, with losses of £450.7 million, a two per cent drop off from 2023. The number of cases was down 20%, to under 186,000.
The biggest amount of APP losses came from investment fraud, which occurs when a criminal convinces their victim to move their money to a fictitious fund or to pay for a fake investment. £144.4 million was stolen through this type of fraud in 2024, an increase of 34%, despite a 24% reduction in cases.
Ben Donaldson, MD, economic crime, UK Finance, says: 'To deal with this threat, we need a more proactive approach with the public and private sectors working more closely together and using data and intelligence more effectively. We also need the technology and telecommunication sectors to step up and actually fight the fraud originating on their platforms and networks.'
