Highest rate of current account fraud in years

A rate of 44 in every 10,000 current account applications were found to be fraudulent in the first quarter of this year, a 23 per cent rise on the last three months of 2011, Experian said.

The rate is the highest since Experian’s records began in spring 2009 and was the biggest driver behind a 16 per cent jump in financial services fraud rates generally compared with the previous quarter.

Nineteen in every 10,000 applications for financial services generally were found to be fraudulent in the first three months of this year.

The study found that current account fraud often involved “financially stressed” people exaggerating or hiding aspects of their personal circumstances, such as not revealing bad credit histories when trying to open an account or apply for an overdraft.

Around four in 10 current account frauds involved payment abuse, including people trying to make payments from accounts when they knew they did not have enough money to cover the costs.

Attempted insurance fraud increased by 37 per cent quarter-on-quarter to reach its highest point since late 2009, with 13 in every 10,000 applications and claims detected as fraudulent.

Credit card fraud has also seen a resurgence, increasing from 10 cases in every 10,000 applications in the final three months of 2011 to 14 in the first quarter of 2012.

Attempted identity frauds on cards leapt from five to eight in every 10,000 applications over the same period.