Josh Gunnell, director of fraud & ID at TransUnion in the UK, comments on the recent ONS fraud statistics:
“The latest fraud figures from the Office for National Statistics for the year to September 2022 show that bank and credit account fraud decreased by 14% to 2.1 million offences. This may be testament to the increasing levels of control that finance providers are putting in place to help stop fraud and raise awareness of scams.
“However, advanced fee fraud, which includes scams for services paid upfront that never arrive, has increased ninefold to 546,000 offences when compared with the year ending March 2020. This illustrates fraudsters adapting to changing habits, with consumers more susceptible than ever to phishing and online scams, such as bogus discounts, phoney competitions and fake offers as they explore online money saving deals.
“Our recent Consumer Pulse study showed that nearly half (48%)i of UK consumers were targeted by phishing activity in the last quarter of 2022, highlighting the scale of the continuing fraud threat and the need for businesses to continually evaluate and evolve their fraud prevention solutions to ensure consumers are protected.”
Notes:
i TransUnion’s Consumer Pulse Q4 2022 UK Study, based on a survey of 981 UK adults from 3–14 Nov, 2022
Source: TransUnion UK Press Release
