Digital fraud costs Britain more than $7 billion in losses

Even in a country whose judicial system is among the finest and cleanest in the world, individuals must be wary of digital fraud, which intensified during and after the Covid epidemic a few years ago.

The latest report from the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS) indicates that the number of complaints about electronic fraud in Britain reached a record high in the last quarter (April to June), amounting to 8,700 complaints, compared to about six thousand complaints in the same period last year.

The report also reveals that more than half of the fraudulent transactions against individuals are carried out through bank transfers and direct payments, which are transfers that are usually made via a bank account from a phone or computer.

Pat Hurley, head of the banking sector at FOS, which is a regulatory body, believes: “Fraudsters are steadily developing their methods, and this is what the samples of complaints received by the authority reveal.” He also indicates that the number of complaints they receive weekly exceeds 500.

However, he adds: “The outcome of the investigation into the complaint depends on two things: the personal behavior of the consumer and the intermediary company (the bank) that carried out the payment process and whether each of them took sufficient guarantees.”

Banks are mostly responsible for paying compensation to victims of fraud if their value is less than 414,000 British pounds ($546,000) through the mechanism of “regulating payment systems.” The exceptions are if the fraud occurred outside the country or if the victim has proven negligence in electronic safety procedures.