Fraudsters are shifting their tactics to buy items online using stolen details, and sometimes tricking people into disclosing their one-time passcodes, according to a banking and finance industry body.

Cases where criminals used stolen details to buy items online helped to push up the number of unauthorised fraud payments last year.

UK Finance recorded 3.13 million cases of unauthorised fraud in 2024 – where money is taken from someone’s account by a third party, without the account holder’s consent.

This was a 14% increase compared with 2023. Unauthorised fraud losses totalled £722 million in 2024 – a 2% annual increase.

One of the main reasons for the rise was an increase in remote purchase fraud, which had been falling in recent years, UK Finance said.

With this type of fraud, criminals use stolen card details to buy something on the internet, over the phone or through mail order.

Remote purchase fraud case numbers increased by 22% to nearly 2.6 million, and losses increased by 11% to nearly £400 million.

UK Finance said criminals are using social engineering to trick people into divulging one-time passcodes (OTPs).

Once they have an OTP, a criminal is often able to authenticate fraudulent transactions or to register compromised card details for digital wallets.

Victims of unauthorised fraud cases are legally protected against losses and UK Finance research indicates that customers are fully refunded in more than 98% of unauthorised fraud cases.

Meanwhile, the number of authorised push payment (APP) fraud cases, where people were tricked into transferring money to fraudsters, fell by a fifth (20%) last year.

Some 186,000 APP fraud cases were recorded by UK Finance – the lowest figure since 2020.

APP losses fell by 2% to just over £450 million in 2024.

Despite the fall in APP scam reports, UK Finance said there was a “notable increase” in international payments being made as part of APP fraud, with criminals likely trying to persuade people to send money outside of the UK.

International payments accounted for 11% of APP losses in 2024, up from 6% in 2023.

The general decline in APP fraud cases was driven by a range of factors, including investing in technology that can help identify and flag potentially fraudulent activity, as well as consumers being made aware of frauds, the report said.

The biggest amount of APP losses was due to investment fraud, which happens when a criminal convinces their victim to move their money to a fictitious fund or to pay for a fake investment.