Half a billion stolen in fraud and scams in H1 2018

The data found a total of £145.5m was lost due to authorised push payment (APP) scams between January and June 2018 across 34,128 cases in the first half of 2018. Of those, purchase scams were the most prevalent, accounting for almost two thirds of reported cases, with some £19.4m lost.  In APP scams, the victim pays in advance for a product or service, such as a car, electronics, or a holiday rental, which is never received or does not exist. APP scams often take place online, through auction websites or social media. If a customer authorises the payment themselves, current legisl...