Fraud In UK Soars By 53% To £755 Million In 2015

A new report from Financial Fraud Action UK has found that fraud in the UK payments industry has soared by 53% in a year, totalling £755 million in 2015.

Brian Spector, CEO at MIRACL:

“Given the current state of security in the payments industry, it’s inevitable that the number of cases of financial fraud has risen so dramatically in the past year. Hackers have become more sophisticated and are managing to bypass traditional methods of security with alarming ease. A range of tactics which once seemed secure – such as identity verification via text message – are becoming easier for hackers to exploit. Meanwhile, banks are under pressure to be as user-friendly as possible, which has resulted in security being downgraded in a number of cases.

As the payments market has become more open, with a plethora of third party applications now sitting between banks and their customers, it has become paramount to accurately verify the identities of people accessing the data and systems involved. Fortunately, this is something that is addressed by the revised Payment Services Directive (PSD2), which will make online payments safer for businesses and individuals. In the meantime, customers should take every opportunity to protect their personal and financial data, such as enabling multi-factor authentication when it is offered, and not reusing passwords across multiple accounts.”