Bank Issues Warning Over Scammers After Nearly £2 Million Stolen Last Christmas

A woman's hand pressing keys of a laptop keyboard on March 4, 2017. Dominic Lipinski/PA Wire

Santander UK has warned people and businesses to be vigilant against fraud over the Christmas period, after the bank’s data showed nearly £2 million of customers’ money was lost to authorised push payment (APP) scams between Dec. 25, 2023 and Jan, 1, 2024.

The major bank said on Monday that over the previous Christmas period, 596 scams were reported by retail and business customers worth £1,999,444. This included an individual loss of more than £600,000 as part of an investment scam, the largest amount lost by a customer in the whole of last year.

APP scams are where victims are tricked into transferring money online to a fraudster posing as a legitimate payee.

On Christmas Day last year, Santander said customers reported scams related to buying items online, including on social media platforms including Instagram and Facebook Marketplace.

Several had also contacted the bank to say they had been approached from scammers pretending to be from Santander.

Christmas Clouding Senses

The bank urged people to be particularly wary of deals that seem too good to be true and to be alert to possible scam emails or phone calls, warning that fraudsters can spoof email addresses or phone numbers to appear as the genuine contact. It added that if your bank issues a warning while you’re making a payment, to heed it, as you may be a victim of a scam.

Santander UK’s behavioural scientist, Pete Staffel, said that during this time of year, people eager to look for that last-minute gift may have their judgment clouded and inadvertently be sucked in by a fraudster.

“Don’t let the build up to Christmas cloud your senses,” Staffel said.

He continued, “Scammers don’t take the holiday season off, and whether it’s through ‘buy it now’ ads, impersonating your bank, or offering a too-good-to-be- true investment, they will be looking for ways to be the grinch that steals more than your Christmas.”

APP Fraud

In July, the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS) revealed that banking sector complaints had reached their highest level in a decade, with more than one-quarter being related to fraud.

The FOS said that in the financial year 2023/24, there were 27,312 complaints relating to fraud, of which around 50 percent concerned APP scams.

UK Finance, a trade association for banking and financial services, said that last year, APP fraud losses amounted to £459.7 million, of which £287.3 million (62 percent) were returned to victims.

Protections have since come into place which mean that banks will have to reimburse customers who are victims of APP scams.

Under the new regulations from the Payment Systems Regulator which came into effect in October, most customers can expect to be reimbursed within five business days of making their claim.

9 Million People Scammed

Figures from Citizens Advice from October revealed that 9 million people had fallen victim to scams last year.

This included friends-in-need scams, where fraudsters pretend to be a relative or friend and ask the victim to send them money or personal banking information. This kind of fraud affected around 2.5 million people.

Pension scammers targetted some 2.5 million people, offering free pension reviews with big promises. They then moved that money into a badly run, high-risk investment or into an investment that was entirely fake.

Scams included other fake investments relating to gold, cryptocurrency, and property. The charity also warned that scammers are putting fake QR codes over legitimate codes for scanning at car parks.

The vast majority (76 percent) of all scams took place on social media platforms, Citizens Advice said.

Targetting the Elderly

Older people are also particularly vulnerable to certain kinds of fraud.

Earlier this year, Action Fraud, the national fraud reporting arm of the City of London Police, released data showing that mostly elderly people were targetted in courier fraud cases.

Courier scamming involves fraudsters cold calling victims’ landlines and pretending to be police or bank officials. The criminals then dupe their targets into handing over money or valuables which are picked up from their home address by couriers.

Between April 2023 and March 2024, £28,686,091 was lost to courier fraud.

Some 85 percent of victims were aged 60 to 90 years old, with 31.5 percent in their 70s and a third in their 80s. The oldest victim was 94.