Criminals stole £1.17bn through unauthorised and authorised fraud in the UK during 2024, new figures released by UK Finance have shown.

The banking trade body’s latest annual fraud report highlighted that the figure was broadly unchanged from 2023.

In total, there were 3.13 million confirmed cases of unauthorised fraud reported in 2024, a level up 14% on 2023, with losses totalling £722m last year, a figure up 2%.

UK Finance suggested that one of the main reasons for the rise was an increase in remote purchase fraud, which had been falling in recent years. In this type of fraud, criminals use stolen card details to buy something on the internet, over the phone or through mail order. Overall, remote purchase fraud case numbers jumped by 22% to 2.6 million last year, as losses increased 11% to aronud £400m.

Authorised push payment (APP) fraud losses dropped in 2024, falling 2% to £450.7m, as the total comprised £365.7m of personal losses and £84.9m on non-personal losses.

The number of APP fraud cases fell by 20% to around 86,000 last year, the lowest figure since 2020. UK Finance said this was driven by a range of factors, including investing in technology that can help identify and flag potentially fraudulent activity, to educating and raising awareness among consumers.

Managing director of economic crime at UK Finance, Ben Donaldson, said: “Fraud continues to blight this country, with over £1bn stolen by criminals in 2024. This causes severe harm to individuals, society and our economy as the stolen money goes to serious organised crime groups, both here and abroad.

“The financial services industry works tirelessly to protect customers and prevent billions more being stolen by fraudsters, but we know that criminals are always looking for new ways to exploit victims.”

UK Finance also revealed that banks prevented £1.45bn of unauthorised fraud through advanced security systems in 2024.

Donaldson added: “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.”

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