• Just over £100m lost to transfer scams in first six months of 2017. 19,370 cases - with an average loss of £3,027 for consumers and £21,477 for businesses 
• Financial providers return £25.2 million - almost a quarter of losses, but call for legislative changes to allow them to do more  
• 81 per cent of people say they are confident that they could identify a fraudulent approach, despite less than half being aware of even most common frauds

New data collated and published by the financial industry for the first time reveals that in the first six months of 2017 customers sent £101.2 million to criminals after being tricked by authorised transfer scams1.  The new figures reveal the extent of the growing problem of criminals directly targeting consumers and businesses to trick them into authorising a payment.  Industry data shows there were 19,370 cases in H1 2017: 88% of this total were consumers losing an average of £3,000, and the remainder were businesses who lost on average £21,500 per case.   

Criminals use a range of tactics including invoice scams, house purchase scams and email hacking to target victims, and their scams can be very convincing. If a customer authorises the payment themselves, current legislation means that they have no legal protection to cover them for losses - unlike other financial frauds where the criminal makes a payment without a customer's consent.

Banks will always endeavour to help customers recover stolen money but customers typically only approach their bank after the payment has been processed, when they realise they have been duped. By this time the criminal has often withdrawn the stolen funds and the customer's money has gone. Financial providers were able to return £25.2 million of the losses in the first half of 2017.

The industry is taking decisive action to tackle these scams with a multi-pronged approach:

• Preventing customers falling for these scams: the industry has joined forces with Her Majesty's Government to raise awareness of common scams in order to encourage customers to confidently challenge a criminal. The latest Take Five to Stop Fraud campaign is supported and promoted by banks and building societies. A new customer advice guide is also available to download which advises customers on common authorised transfer scams and the best prevention advice. 
• Repatriation of funds: the industry is working with Government and law enforcement on how to freeze and seize more stolen money to return it back to victims.  The implementation of the Criminal Finances Act2 will assist with this but legislation is also being reviewed to see what changes are required to provide banks with a greater ability to return funds to victims. A change in the law would also allow criminal funds, currently frozen in bank accounts, to be potentially used to tackle fraud and scams and help victims.
• Collating industry data to establish the scale of the issue and to monitor it going forward with updates provided twice a year. This data will help industry and law enforcement to tackle authorised transfer scams more effectively.
• Considering longer term innovations to help customers better identify who they are dealing with. This may include a system to verify payee name details before a payment is made. UK Finance supports the proposal to make such an innovation available as outlined by the Payments Systems Regulator's strategy setting body - the Payment Strategy Forum. UK Finance believes this should be developed to provide assurance to customers that they are paying the intended recipient, whilst acknowledging that this system would only be possible with legislative changes to allow more data to be shared.    
• Putting measures in place to ensure customers who have fallen victim of fraud and scams get the help they need no matter who they bank with. Best practice standards3 will address issues such as around-the-clock availability of fraud specialists, consistent processes for notifying and assessing customer claims and blocking frauds.
• Work with government on making possible changes to legislation concerning account opening procedures to help the industry act more proactively on suspicion of fraud and prevent criminals from accessing financial systems.
• Sponsoring a dedicated police unit who specialise in tackling financial fraud and scams head on.  

UK Finance recently published data on other fraud types (card, remote banking and cheque fraud) for the first half of 2017.  Total fraud losses on all these frauds fell by 8 per cent.      

Katy Worobec, Head of Fraud and Financial Crime Prevention, Cyber and Data Sharing at UK Finance, said:

These figures confirm that criminals are enjoying a great deal of success targeting customers directly and tricking them into falling for their scams.  There is no fast or surefire solution, but the industry is determined to crack down on these criminals on all fronts.

?Raising customer awareness is one weapon in the fight to stop these scams, which is why we are investing in the Take Five campaign. We are also actively working with regulators, government and law enforcement to take urgent action. This includes looking to freeze and seize funds stolen through scams; to help customers check someone is genuine before authorising a payment; and to explore whether changes to account opening procedures could help prevent criminals accessing our financial systems. All these developments require legislative change in some shape or form which means they won't be in place overnight. This is why it's so critical that everyone pays heed to our Take Five advice and stops to think before making a payment.?

Take Five has issued the following advice to help customers stay safe from financial scams with the key message ?My Money, my info, I don't think so?:

• A genuine bank or organisation will never contact you asking for your PIN, full password or to move money to a safe account.
• Never give out personal or financial information. Always contact the company directly using a known email or phone number.
• Don't be tricked into giving a fraudster access to your details. Never automatically click on a link in an unexpected email or text.
• Always question uninvited approaches, in case it's a scam.