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Boffin warns account fraud is twice as high as banks admit
CUSTOMERS are unaware of the true extent of bank fraud, as lenders only tell them if the money was lost, a top academic claimed yesterday.
“Banks collate the information and publish figures for how much money is lost, but twice as much goes walkies out of peoples’ accounts,” the University of Cambridge’s Richard Clayton told the Treasury Select Committee of MPs. “Moving money out of an account is quite straightforward, but moving money out of the banking system is quite difficult.”
The committee’s chairman is writing to banks and regulators for more information.
“The amount of fraud reported by banks may substantially understate the true scale of the problem,” said Andrew Tyrie. “This is concerning.”