News out today from the National Fraud Authority (NFA) shows that fraud costs the UK economy £38bn a year – leaving every adult in the UK £765 worse off.

Unfortunately, I'm not surprised by these figures. Fraud, of all types, is a serious problem across all areas of society, and I completely agree with the NFA that everyone has to play their part to help beat the criminals. For their part, banks in the UK and around the world make significant investments in their fraud prevention tools and people, using many different techniques to try to identify any suspicious activity and stop fraud as soon as they can. But it isn't enough to leave the problem to the government, police or banks, every single person must also take fraud seriously and try to protect themselves and their money.

This can be as simple as not throwing sensitive personal information in the bin, checking bank statements regularly and flagging anything suspicious, or protecting your PIN when withdrawing cash or using a card to pay in a shop or restaurant. It would be naïve to think we will ever be able to eliminate fraud completely, but there's no reason why we can't all work together to reduce it significantly.

Dave Divitt
Fraud & Risk Solutions Consultant