European Card Fraud - United Kingdom

UK Remains in Steady State Amidst Rising Threat Levels

In 2024, UK Finance reported £572.6 million in total card fraud losses, a 3.9% increase from £551.3 million in 2023. This incline is cause for concern, despite the fact that over the last few years the UK has seen falling card losses and a broader trend of stabilisation in the UK payments landscape.

Card Not Present (CNP) fraud remained the leading fraud category, accounting for around 70% of total card fraud losses. This marks an increase of 11% in CNP losses from 2023 to 2024; the UK continues to register the highest CNP fraud losses in Europe, underscoring the persistent risk associated with remote transactions. A recent CIFAS Fraudscape report further enforces the need for the UK to remain at the forefront of fraud prevention, as more cases than ever were reported to them in 2024.

Conversely, Identity (ID) fraud losses dropped significantly by 26% to £58.7M, pointing to a shift in criminal behaviour away from ID theft and towards social engineering, data compromises and scams. The growing use of fraud enhancements such as biometric and behavioural monitoring tools will be helping the decrease, combined with continued investment by UK and EU financial services towards full customer journey visibility and data sharing – with identity characteristics being monitored from onboarding through early book and ongoing lifecycle stages of the customer journey.

The UK has always been a leader in innovation of fraud technology and customer protection methods. The continued investment in preventative tools, such as Scam Signal, and intelligence-led fraud detection remains critical to protecting card portfolios from evolving threats.