Fraud prevention strategies have some success with £32m saved through the Banking Protocol

Branch staff at banks, building societies and Post Offices worked with the police to stop £32m of fraud through the Banking Protocol in the first half of this year, according to trade body UK Finance. This is up 65 per cent compared with 2020 and brings the total amount of fraud prevented to £174m since the scheme was introduced in 2016.

More than 4,700 emergency calls were made between January and June this year, protecting customers from losing an average of £6,672 each to criminals, while use of the scheme has led to 934 arrests.

The Dedicated Card and Payment Crime Unit (DCPU) prevented the theft of a further £85m in the first half of this year. DCPU investigations led to 67 arrests in that time, including several involved in scams exploiting the Covid-19 pandemic. There were 49 convictions in the period.

The unit is currently investigating more than 140 live cases, including 43 organised crime groups. Additionally, banks repaid £150m to authorised push payment fraud victims in the first half of this year, up 83 per cent annually.

UK Finance also runs Take Five to Stop Fraud, encouraging people to stop, challenge and protect themselves when asked to send money. The trade body is part of the Govern­ment-backed joint fraud taskforce, which relaunched in October to bring together public and private groups to develop better anti-scam tools and initiatives.

Most banks have signed up to a retail banking charter as part of the new taskforce, to commit to developing data to monitor fraud patterns, promote awareness and better protect customers.

Other non-police bodies with a responsibility for fraud protection include the Financial Conduct Authority, for reporting investment scams, while fake adverts can be reported to the Advertising Standards Authority. Google users can report scam ads found on the search engine and a dedicated text number, 7726, reports fake mobile messages to network providers.