Data breaches drive losses from fraud up to £1.2bn

The theft of personal information following data breaches drove an increase in money stolen through fraud to £1.2bn last year.

A number of well known companies suffered high profile data breaches in 2018, including Facebook, Google, and British Airways.

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Unauthorised fraud, where the account holder is not duped into approving a payment, was up 16 per cent compared to 2017, according to the latest data by UK Finance.

The money lost to cheque fraud soared by 109 per cent to £21m and losses from unauthorised transactions on payment cards were up 19 per cent to £671m.

Meanwhile, £354m was lost through authorised push payment scams, which trick customers into authorising a payment to another account which is controlled by a criminal.

However, the banking and finance industry was able to prevent a total of £1.66bn worth of fraud last year.

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UK Finance managing director of economic crime Katy Worobec said: “Fraud is a crime that is a major threat to us all – it can have a devastating impact on victims and the money stolen funds even more damaging criimes such as terrorism, drug trafficking and people smuggling.

“Every business, from online retailers to social media companies , as well as the public sector, has a duty to work together to beat fraud and prevent stolen data getting into the hands of criminals. “