Laura Suter, head of personal finance at AJ Bell, comments on UK Finance’s fraud report for the first half of 2023:

“So-called authorised push payment fraud has hit its highest levels on record, with the number of cases rising by 22% in the past year. More than 116,000 cases were recorded in the first half of this year, as scammers ramped up their efforts. However, the silver lining to this is that the amount returned to victims hit its highest rate. Of the money lost, 64p in the £1 was returned to victims, following the introduction of the voluntary code of conduct introduced by the industry, but it remains that a third of losses are not reimbursed and have to be footed by the individual.