A new report from BioCatch has found that there has been an 11% increase in fraud and scams originating from mobile channels in the UK.

UK banks report that fraudsters are turning away from social engineering voice scams leading to a 34% decline.

BioCatch has articulated that it pulled its data from a dozen different UK banks servicing more than 110 million retail banking customers in the country.

UK banks report three times more mule accounts in 2024 than they did in 2023.

Voice scams to mobile fraud

Tom Peacock, Director of Global Fraud Intelligence, BioCatch said: “We continue to see results from UK banks increasing their efforts to detect social engineering scams.

“Unfortunately, the decrease in social engineering voice scams observed in this report likely just means all that fraud migrated elsewhere.

“We know, for example, card fraud has increased, as has fraud conducted from mobile devices, correlating with a 6% spike in stolen-device fraud and a recent iOS update allowing remote control of iPhones for the first time in the product’s history,” commented Peacock.

The report by BioCatch on digital banking fraud trends in the UK, also includes a case study showcasing how behavioural and device intelligence identifies suspicious payments in a sophisticated investment scam lasting months.

In this instance, 90% of reported fraud payments occurred while the user was on a call and 80% took place on a device with multiple displays (suggesting the possibility of remote access).

The displacement of fraud

Jonathon Frost, Global Advisory Director for EMEA, BioCatch articulated that: “While the decline in voice scams represents progress, if overall fraud is not declining in the UK, we must consider the possibility that we’ve displaced rather than banished fraud losses.

“Anticipating this possibility both buys us more time to plan and gives us the opportunity to consider all potential scenarios,” remarked Frost.

Other key report findings:

• BioCatch customers in the UK reported three times more suspected money laundering accounts in 2024 than they did the year before

• Fraud cases utilising malware dropped by 27% in the UK

• Reported cases of fraudulent authorisation of card payments in the UK increased by 16%

• While the majority of investment scams last only a day, 16% continue for a full week and 9% last longer than a month