TSB has issued an urgent warning to customers over growing rates of impersonation fraud, with duped customers losing up to £4000 on average.
The UK bank says impersonation fraud accounted for a third (33%) of TSB fraud cases since the start of the year.
TSB classes impersonation fraud as an attack in which a criminal impersonates a company, business, organisation or an individual as the key component of the scam. The category accounted for over half (52%) of TSB customer transactions to fraudsters by value in 2021.
New industry figures highlight the ever-present threat of fraud - with over £2 billion worth of cases reported to Action Fraud in under a year.
Impersonation fraud is a key driver of these losses, as cases have spiked by over 300 percent since 2019.
Bank impersonation fraud is rife across the industry - making up 24 percent of all fraud losses in UK Finance’s latest fraud data. At TSB, this type of scam makes up 21 percent of all losses.
TSB is also warning over friends and family fraud, which recorded the second highest number of cases, overall. It leads to over £1,200 lost per case, many of which are cost-of-living related, as fraudsters send emotive texts, or email requests for financial help, all while posing as a relative, or friend.
Further figures released today show that £6.7 billion worth of cases have been reported to Action Fraud since April 2019.
Paul Davis, director of fraud prevention, TSB, says: “Households are bombarded with scam calls, texts and emails every day - we're urging them to remain suspicious of any unsolicited contact, to avoid falling victim to fraud at a time when the impact would be hardest felt.
“We continue to be the only bank to protect customers from fraud losses, through our Fraud Refund Guarantee, which is as important now as it’s ever been to the lives of our customers."