SECURITY

s fraud rates continue to rise , nearly all adults in the UK ( 94 %)

Three in ten ( 30 %) UK adults have been a victim of financial fraud , and more than half ( 55 %) have seen an increase in the number of scam attempts in the last 12 months .

Data from the National Crime Agency shows that fraud is now the most common crime in the UK , accounting for 40 % of all offences recorded in England and Wales . Almost £ 1.2 billion was lost to fraud in the UK last year , with Authorised Push Payment ( APP ) fraud a significant contributor to this – UK Finance ’ s 2024 Fraud report shows a 12 % jump in the number of APP cases in 2023 , with total losses amounting to £ 459.7 million .

The study reveals evidence of social stigma around financial fraud . Despite the scale of the issue , victims aren ’ t speaking openly about it – only a fifth ( 20 %) of people who have been a victim of a scam say they go on to speak to their friends and family about how they can protect themselves in similar situations , and one in seven ( 13 %) decided not to report the scam because they felt embarrassed or ashamed .

Banks are conscious of the role they must play in recovering customer funds after scams , and the impact it has both financially and emotionally for scam victims . Two-thirds ( 68 %) of people who have been scammed say they are happy with the level of support provided by their bank .

As scams become more complex , almost six in ten people ( 57 %) appreciate banks providing additional information on safeguarding against financial fraud and scams – this type of information can be supported by the banks ’ use of cutting-edge technology to provide additional intelligence and more sophisticated scores .

In addition to boosting consumer awareness of what scams look like , banks are also embracing technology that can help to fight the rise in fraud and ensure consumers are protected before the scam occurs .

Featurespace recently announced the results of a major pilot with Pay . UK , the independent , not-for-profit operator of the UK ’ s national retail payments system , to protect UK consumers from APP fraud .

The overall pilot exceeded expectations with participants ’ results showing an average uplift of more than £ 112m worth of additional

fraud detected in a year – Featurespace significantly outperformed this average , achieving an uplift of £ 138.7 million demonstrating how significant improvements in fraud detection is possible at a national level through a consortium approach .

Martina King , CEO at Featurespace , said : “ The UK is in the midst of a fraud epidemic and millions of people across the country are having to think twice and become more cautious in their daily lives to try to avoid scams .

“ While these criminals have a wide range of tools at their disposal , and access to our identities in many cases , the good news is that the industry has a wealth of behavioural data within our banks that can be used to spot signs of fraud before it happens . This data is our superpower , and it is how we will turn the tide on fraud – by using AI for good .

“ Banks across the UK have been harnessing this data and using AI and Machine Learning technology for good for over a decade . By creating an anonymised profile of an individual in real-time , we can use the good behaviour ( of which there is significantly more ), to identify and stop unusual , potentially fraudulent bad behaviour in milliseconds , protecting banks and their customers from fraud . The recent Pay . UK proof of concept demonstrates that when banks share intelligence amongst the group , the positive impact on reduction of loss for consumers is striking .”

Featurespace has built a model optimised for real-time data analytics , capable of recalibrating in real-time to identify and prevent both existing and new forms of fraud .

Last year , Featurespace ’ s solution improved NatWest ’ s scam detection rate by 135 % and reduced false positives for scams by 75 % – enabling genuine transactions to be processed quicker , saving both costs and processing time .

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