Application fraud rates up by 20 per cent as current accounts and credit cards get hit
Rates of financial application fraud have continued to climb in 2016, pushed on by credit card and current account scams.
Current account fraud again topped Experian’s fraud index charts for fraudulent applications at a rate of 126 in every 10,000 applications, compared to 81 in 10,000 over the same period a year ago.
Credit card fraud took place at a rate of 46 in every 10,000 applications, increasing steadily over the past two years from 33 in every 10,000 in the first quarter of 2014.
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ID theft within mortgage applications is also on the rise, up by two percentage points to six per cent of mortgage scams.
Historically, ID theft has accounted for around four per cent of all mortgage application fraud.
Nick Mothershaw, fraud expert from Experian, said the increase from four to six per cent is worrying.
“This is because third party mortgage fraud is very complex and not as easy to commit on a large scale as fraud related to other financial products, such as current accounts, can be.”
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Despite the increase in the ID theft in mortgage fraud, the index revealed that overall mortgage fraud attempts dropped in the first quarter year-on-year, down by 17 to 66 in every 10,000 applications.
Meanwhile, application fraud remains tipped towards identity theft making up 56 per cent of all fraudulent activity in the first quarter.