How Skipton Building Society thwarted £61m of fraud in 2020

STAFF at Skipton Building Society have helped to thwart more than £61m worth of fraud and scams this year.
The latest fraud trends include pension scams and phishing emails to Covid-19 and romance scamsThe latest fraud trends include pension scams and phishing emails to Covid-19 and romance scams
The latest fraud trends include pension scams and phishing emails to Covid-19 and romance scams

The team at Skipton has seen fraudulent activity fall by almost 45 per cent when compared with 2019, which the mutual believes is due to extra measures implemented to protect customer funds and make products unappealing to criminals.

A Skipton spokesman said: “These have specifically reduced instances of savings account frauds, such as authorised push payment fraud.”

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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.

He added: “The team this year alone have prevented over £60m in fraudulent mortgages and scams – spotting and preventing numerous attempts at defrauding others.

"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.”

Although Mr Walker was pleased to see this the number of fraud cases going down, he said there was still a need to be vigilant.

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The UK’s fourth largest building society 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.

The spokesman said: “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.”

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