Fraud soars by 53% in a year as scammers get sophisticated

Financial services providers are launching a national campaign to combat rise in fraud and remind customers to stop and think

Fraud in the UK payments industry has soared by 53% in a year as criminals resort to increasingly sophisticated tactics to trick people out of their personal details and steal their money.

Official industry data shows that a total of 1,007,094 cases of financial fraud - involving online and phone banking, debit and credit cards, and cheques - occurred between 1 January and 30 June this year. That compares with the 660,308 cases reported during the same six-month period in 2015.