Taylor Swift and Olympics Ticket Scams Fuel 2024 Fraud

Fake Olympics tickets and Taylor Swift are the two biggest online scams consumers are likely to face this year, UK Finance has warned.

The alert came as the banking lobby group reported that the number of people duped by romance fraud and purchase scams had reached new heights last year.

In total, criminals stole £1.17 billion in 2023, a 4% drop on 2022, according to the fraud group’s annual report.

But UK Finance said abuse on online platforms continued to leave people vulnerable. He called on tech companies to do more to help stop scams.

Consumers lost £86 million last year to shopping scams, where they agreed to pay for something that never materialized, UK Finance said.

This represents an increase of 28% compared to 2022. In total, there were more than 156,000 cases of fraud of this type last year.

“Every year we see a change in the cycle of scams throughout the year,” said Ben Donaldson, managing director of economic crime at UK Finance.

“The Olympics and Taylor Swift are the two biggest examples this year.”

More than 600 bank customers reported losing money.

UK Finance said fraudsters often convince victims to pay for goods by bank transfer rather than on an official website.

“Tickets for big events like the Olympics, Euro 2024, Glastonbury or Taylor Swift sell out quickly and people often look for better deals online so they don’t miss out.

“Criminals will use this opportunity to try to trick you into buying tickets that are either fraudulent or don’t exist,” warned Andy McDonald, of UK Finance.

UK Finance’s annual report notes progress in tackling fraud, which is the UK’s most common crime and has increased during the pandemic.

The total number of cases decreased by 1% compared to 2022, to around 2.97 million, with fraud involving payment cards accounting for the vast majority.

The report found that losses from unauthorized transactions fell by 3% to £708.7 million last year, a fall which it said was due to improved customer verification practices.

UK Finance said there was also less money lost to scams where payments were authorized.

These losses fell by 5% to £459.7 million, with cases involving criminals posing as banks or the police falling sharply.

However, the number of victims and money stolen in romance scams, in which people are tricked into believing they are in a relationship, hit a record last year, the report said.

Losses in these cases increased by 17% to £36 million and involved an average of 10 payments per case.

This loss is double the amount reported for the same type of scams in 2020.

“Stolen money funds serious organized crime and victims often suffer emotional damage because fraud is a pernicious and manipulative crime,” Mr Donaldson said.

New regulations are set to come into force on October 7 this year, which will force UK payment service providers to reimburse customers who fall victim to payment fraud. But there are some exceptions to this rule.

UK Finance said the change made the fight against fraud more urgent.

“With the change in reimbursement rules, we risk even more money falling into the hands of criminals, unless the technology and telecommunications sectors take (appropriate) measures to stop fraud that proliferates across their platforms and networks,” Donaldson said.