It’s a sad truth that fraud is ever-present, threatening every part of society. It now makes up for well over a third of all crimes in the UK.
One particularly prevalent type of scam is Authorised Push Payment (APP) fraud. It’s not a new scam but is being used more and more by fraudsters. In the first half of 2021, losses to APP fraud in the UK hit £355.3m, overtaking card fraud for the first time.
What is Authorised Push Payment fraud?
APP fraud is where victims are tricked into transferring money to an account fraudsters control. They pretend to be a trusted organisation like the FCA, HMRC, law enforcement, the victim’s bank or investment provider like HL. They sometimes also pretend to be someone the victim knows like a family member or friend.
The fraudster will often tell the victim their money is at risk and they need to move it to a ‘safe’ account. They might even ask the victim to lie to their bank or other financial institution about the reason for withdrawing money – this is a tell-tale sign of a scam and something to look out for.
As more of us use online banking these days to make it easier to transfer money in real time, it means more of us are at risk. Scammers can trick victims into using real-time payment schemes to transfer the money to them. These payments are irreversible, a victim can’t cancel the payment once they realise they’ve been scammed.
While banks usually refund you for card fraud, there’s limited…
