Bank fraud hits £769m

SCOTLAND’S BEST EMPLOYER AWARDS 2017 0141 309 4906 maaen@insider.co.uk Cyber crooks target payment cards

In an increasingly competitive marketplace organisations that want to attract the best employees need to earn a reputation as a great place to work. Enter Scotland’s Best Employer Awards to let the industry know you’re proud of your workplace. DEADLINE - 26TH JUNE 2017 CRIMINALS got away with £24 worth of bank fraud every second last year, figures have revealed.

A report yesterday showed almost £769million was lost to financial fraud in 2016 – two per cent higher than the previous year.

Most of it involved losses linked to payment cards, which rose nine per cent to £618million, according to industry group Financial Fraud Action UK.

So called “remote banking fraud” dropped 19 per cent to £137million, and cheque fraud fell by 28 per cent to just under £14million. Overall, there were nearly 1.9million cases of financial fraud in 2016.

The good news is that banks and credit card firms blocked far more fraudulent transactions than got through. The report says around £1.38billion worth of potential losses were prevented in 2016.

It says “impersonation and deception” scams, as well as online attacks, were the main drivers.

Katy Worobec, of Financial Fraud Action UK, said: “Banks take the threat of fraud extremely seriously.” Chief Supt Dave Clark, of City of London Police, added: “Criminals look for the weakest link in data and cyber security. We are seeing businesses fail due to crimes that could have been prevented.” John Marsden, head of ID and Fraud at credit reference agency Equifax, said: “The UK is ahead of many other countries in improving fraud defences but cannot be complacent.” down 4.2 at 7369.5 GlaxoSmithKline 1679.0 +0.5 Halfords 350.7 -4.5 Hays 157.3 +0.2 HSBC 656.0 -0.4 Imperial Brands 3841.5 +16.0 International Airlines Grp526.0 -4.5 ITV 211.4 +1.1 Kingfisher 325.0 -0.5 Land Securities 1027.0 -17.0 Legal & General 247.0 +1.0 Lloyds 66.7 +0.1 Marks & Spencer 331.4 -4.1 Morrison 242.3 +5.1 National Grid 1006.0 -7.0 Next 4260.0 -60.0 Old Mutual 216.9 +0.7 Pearson 668.0 +7.0 Prudential 1687.0 +9.6 Reckitt Benckiser 7339.0 +28.0 RELX 1566.0 +3.0 Rentokil Initial 246.4 +1.3 Oil = $52.84 Rio Tinto Rolls-Royce Royal Mail RSA RBS J Sainsbury SSE Severn Trent Serco Sports Direct Shell Sky Smith & Nephew Smith WH Stagecoach Standard Chartered Standard Life TalkTalk Taylor Wimpey Tesco Thomas Cook 3290.0 766.0 419.0 585.5 242.4 265.2 1465.0 2366.0 110.5 294.8 2221.5 977.0 1218.0 1761.0 210.0 766.0 355.9 187.6 192.7 189.0 87.2 WITH TRICIA PHILLIPS DON’T give fraudsters an easy time. Make sure you protect your personal information and keep it safe. ■■Limit the amount of personal details you give out on social networking sites and never share PINs or passwords with anyone. ■■Don’t use the same password for more than one account. Choose ones that are difficult to guess – at least 10 characters and a mix of upper and lower case letters, numbers and punctuation marks. ■■Don’t assume an email request or caller is genuine – people aren’t always who they say they are. And don’t be rushed into making a decision. ■■Never click on links in emails asking you to confirm personal details, it could be leading you to a bogus site. ■■Don’t pay by bank transfer or carry out financial transactions while logged on to a public wifi. ■■Check bank statements regularly and always opt for an additional layer of security when offered by credit card firms. ■■Shred all documents with financial and personal information. +31.5 +7.0 -1.7 -0.5 +1.0 +0.2 -23.0 -10.0 -0.3 +2.8 -6.5 -6.0 -20.0 +1.0 +2.3 +10.0 +1.5 +0.8 +0.7

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