Criminals stole a total of £1.17 billion through unauthorised and authorised fraud in 2023, according to data from trade body UK Finance.

Losses due to unauthorised transactions across payment cards, remote banking and cheques were £708.7 million, down three per cent compared to 2022. The total number of recorded cases was 2.7 million, down two per cent.

Authorised push payment (APP) fraud losses were £459.7million, down five per cent compared to the previous year. This comprised £376.4million of personal losses and £83.3million of business losses.

The total number of APP cases was up 12 per cent to 232,429. The main driver behind this is purchase scams, where people are tricked into paying for goods that never materialise. The total number of these cases rose 34 per cent to over 156,000, while the amount lost rose 28 per cent to £85.9 million making it the highest loss and case total ever recorded. Purchase scams account for 67 per cent of the total number of APP cases.

The number of romance scams, where victims are tricked into believing they are in a relationship, also reached its highest levels in terms of losses and cases, which were up by 17 per cent (to £36.5million) and 14 per cent respectively.

The number of fraud cases where criminals impersonate a bank or the police and convince someone to transfer money to a “safe account” fell by 37 per cent and the amount lost to this type of fraud fell by 28 per cent.

In total £287.3 million of APP losses was returned to victims in 2023 or 62 per cent of the total loss. This has increased from 59 per cent in 2022.

Ben Donaldson, managing director of economic crime at UK Finance, says: "The financial services industry remains at the forefront of efforts to protect customers, prevent fraud and support those who fall victim. With reimbursement rules set to change we risk even more money getting into criminal hands, unless the technology and telecommunication sectors take proper action to stop the fraud that proliferates on their platforms and networks."