Banking fraud increases
Published On 14 December 2006
There has been an 8,000 per cent rise in online computer fraud in the past two years, the government's financial watchdog has warned.The Financial Services Authority (FSA) told the Lords science and technology committee that £23.2 million was stolen through internet scams in the first half of 2006 and predicted £22.5 million would be stolen in the second half.
The scam, known as phishing, encourages web users to hand over personal information – on what appears to be a bank's genuine site – to be used by fraudsters.
There were only 312 phishing frauds in the first six months of 2005, the FSA told peers, but banking trade association Apacs said this has increased to 5,059.
Apacs security chief Philip Whitaker said the sharp increase was down to better detection, but that fraudsters operating phishing scams were taking a more "industrialised" approach.
"We are very concerned about the rate of increase. It has gone up by 8,000 per in the past two years," said Rob Gruppetta, of the FSA's financial crime team.
"But in the grand scheme of total fraud it is still quite small."
Official figures show there were 52,672 fraud offences between January and March 2006.
