Fraudsters stole over £4 million a day from people in the first half of the year, a rise of 31% from the same period in 2020, as criminals increased authorised push-payment (APP) fraud. Through scam calls, texts and emails, as well as fake websites, APP fraud sees criminals con victims into handing over personal data which is then used to trick them into authorising payments to an account belonging to the thieves. The report detected criminals tried taking a further £736 million but improved banking security systems prevented those funds from being moved out of victims’ accounts into the fraudster’s account. UK Finance warned, ‘Fraud is now a national security threat and banking and finance industries are calling for government-coordinated action across all sectors.’