Criminals stole more than £570 million through authorised and unauthorised fraud in the first half of this year, according to data published by UK Finance.

72% of authorised push payment fraud began online and 16% started via telecommunications.

Losses due to unauthorised transactions across payment cards, remote banking and cheques were £358 million in the first half of this year, an increase of 5%.

The data also showed that banks prevented £710.9 million of unauthorised fraud using advanced security systems.

Ben Donaldson, Managing Director of Economic Crime at UK Finance, said:

‘Fraud continues to pose a major threat in this country with over £570 million stolen through payment fraud in the first half of the year. In addition to the financial impact, this crime can cause severe psychological harm to victims.

‘This isn’t a fight we will win alone as our data again shows that most fraud originates online and via telecommunications networks. There have been some improvements made by other sectors, but their actions don’t yet fully match the scale of the problem – more needs to be done to prevent fraudsters exploiting these platforms and networks.’