Skipton prevents fraud worth £61m in 2020

The team says it has actually seen a decrease in fraudulent activity, with activity down by almost 45% when compared to 2019, due to additional measures implemented to protect customer funds and make product offerings unappealing to criminals. These have specifically reduced instances of savings account frauds, such as authorised push payment fraud. According to ONS research, fraud has affected over 9.5 million people between May 2019 and August 2020.

Skipton has introduced a number of initiatives throughout the year to help protect its customers from financial loss. Earlier this year the Society introduced the Nominated Account Verification Scheme, which allows customers to only transfer money to accounts in their name. This has prevented customers from sending funds directly to fraudsters and provides an opportunity to stop and question the withdrawal they have been asked to make.

Ian Walker, Skipton Building Society’s head of financial crime, said: “This year has been a difficult year for many, for a variety of reasons and at Skipton we want everyone to feel like they are in a good place. Unfortunately, there will always be people out there looking to exploit the situation and it's incredibly important for everyone to be clued up on the latest scams and fraud trends, from pension scams and phishing emails to Covid-19 and romance scams.

“At Skipton, we work hard to protect our customers and our team of experts are on hand to support customers who believe they may be a victim of fraud. The team this year alone have prevented over £60m in fraudulent mortgages and scams – spotting and preventing numerous attempts at defrauding others. And while it’s pleasing to see this, and the number of cases going down, we all still need to be vigilant and ensure we all make it as difficult as possible for criminals to exploit the customers or the Society."