Britain ‘has become the home of fraud’, a bank boss warned yesterday – as social media bosses were urged to do more to address the problem.
Lloyds chief executive Charlie Nunn told MPs payment scams are ‘going to get worse’ unless the likes of US tech giant Meta take action.
And NatWest boss Paul Thwaite said £2,300 a minute is lost to this kind of fraud, where account holders are tricked into transferring money.
MPs on the Treasury committee heard that latest data shows that three quarters of such cases originated online and 60 per cent were connected to Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram.
Tricks include fraudsters impersonating celebrities such as Brad Pitt, and ‘romance scams’ – where they convince people they are in a genuine relationship – to persuade victims to hand over cash.
Mr Nunn said: ‘It is really disturbing – the individual cases are harrowing… attacks are growing.’
He explained customers were being ‘convinced to do something’ after going on social media or marketplace sites and then asking the bank to move their money.
Tricks include fraudsters impersonating celebrities such as Brad Pitt, and ‘romance scams’ – where they convince people they are in a genuine relationship – to persuade victims to hand over cash
MPs on the Treasury committee heard that latest data shows that three quarters of such cases originated online and 60 per cent were connected to Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram
Mr Nunn said attempts to slow down the surge in fraud ‘aren’t working’ and if banks or social media operators cannot or do not intervene earlier in this process, ‘this problem is going to get worse for the UK’.
He added: ‘The UK has become the home of fraud and that’s something we all wear very uncomfortably.’
It is the latest broadside from banks over the way so-called ‘authorised push payment’ fraud is dealt with. Lenders are frustrated that, while they have to reimburse scam victims, tech firms do not have to contribute.
British consumers lost a combined £1.2billion across all types of fraud in 2023, figures from trade body UK Finance show.
Mr Thwaite told MPs: ‘The statistics are quite alarming – £2,300 a minute. It’s unbelievable… just less than 40 per cent of all crimes relate to financial fraud.’
He called for tech firms as well as banks to go further to fight the problem. He said banks had worked with Meta to bring ‘down a whole host of sites [which were driving fraud] – so it is possible’.
A spokesman for Meta said: ‘Fraud is a multi-sector-spanning issue that can only be addressed by working collaboratively.
‘Last year, we launched the Fraud Intelligence Reciprocal Exchange programme (FIRE) designed to enable banks to share information about scammers so we can work together to protect people using our respective services, and we encourage more UK banks to join in this effort.’
