A ‘staggering’ £1.2bn was stolen from unsuspecting consumers in 2023, figures show, as people scramble to secure tickets to Taylor Swift’s sold-out UK show is expected to spur a huge summer scam success.
Swift’s Elas Tour and Olympics, which arrive in the UK in June, are a contender for this year’s biggest ticket scam. The warning by industry body UK Finance comes as its annual fraud report revealed a sharp rise in the number of people falling victim to ‘purchase fraud’ in 2023.
In this type of scam, the victim pays for goods or services upfront, such as concert tickets or designer clothing, but never receives them. It usually involves fake advertising on auction websites and social media.
Ben Donaldson, managing director of economic crime at UK Finance, said Taylor Swift “will be a risk this year” as purchase fraud tends to be linked to big events on the calendar.
“We see the cycle of fraud changing throughout the year…The Olympics and Taylor Swift are probably the two biggest events of the year,” he said.
Last month, Lloyds Bank said:emergency alert” Over 600 customers were scammed and lost over £1 million over Taylor Swift tickets.
Mr Donaldson’s comments came as a report from the banking and financial industry trade group revealed that criminals stole a total of £1.2bn through payment fraud and fraud last year. Nevertheless, this number decreased slightly by 4% in 2022 as banks tightened their security controls and the public became more aware of the tactics used by fraudsters.
“It’s really good that financial losses are coming down, but the amount of money that’s being stolen is still absolutely staggering,” he said.
Of the £1.2 billion, around 60% was fraudulent payment card and online banking transactions. Victims of this type of fraud almost always get their money back.
The remaining £460 million is Authorised Push Payment (APP) fraud, where someone is tricked into sending money to a fraudster.
Last year, the number of APP frauds increased by 12% to 232,429, with approximately two-thirds of this figure being purchase fraud.
Details revealed that the number of purchase fraud cases rose by 34% to 156,516, with fraudsters making a total of £86 million. This was the highest on both counts since HM Treasury began tracking his APP fraud in 2020.
A total of £287 million was returned to APP fraud victims in 2023, representing 62% of total losses. This is up from 59% in 2022.
One of the other problem areas highlighted in the report is romance scams, where victims are tricked into believing they are in a relationship. Fraud cases also hit record highs here, both in terms of loss value and number of incidents, increasing by 17% to £37m and 14% respectively.
Card identity theft also rose again in 2023, with losses increasing by 53% to £79m. This means that the criminal is unable to convince the victim to make a legitimate push payment and uses the collected personal information and stolen card details to take over the account or add new credit to his card. This is when you apply.
The update comes ahead of new rules in October mandating coverage for APP fraud. Many banks have now signed up to voluntary indemnification provisions.
TSB fraud spokesman Matt Hepburn said more than three-quarters of fraud cases start online and social media platforms are “taking urgent steps to stop the spread of fraud that is now possible.” He said the time has come to “strengthen it.”
