The Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS) has seen an 66% increase in fraud and scam complaints in the first quarter of the 2021/22 financial year.
The number of cases went up to 5,025 cases compared with 3,028 in the same period last year.
Over that period, the FOS upheld 60% of fraud and scam complaints. It compares with 50% last year.
The data shows that fraud and scams are still one of the main drivers of complaints to the FOS.
Cases include problems caused by fraudsters posing as a customer’s bank, and convincing them to move their money to a fake “safe account”.
They also include consumers being scammed by paying for goods via a bank transfer but not subsequently receiving what they paid for.
The Ombudsman is urging banks and other financial institutions to do more to resolve customers’ complaints before they are forced to escalate to the FOS.
FOS interim chief executive and chief ombudsman Nausicaa Delfas said: “It’s a real concern that we are seeing such an increase in scams.
“It’s vital that people take extra care with their finances, as unfortunately fraudsters are becoming increasingly sophisticated.
“If people feel they have not been treated fairly by their banks, we are here to help.”
The FOS also saw an increase in complaints related to cryptocurrencies during the pandemic.
Although cryptocurrencies are unregulated investments, the Ombudsman can look into complaints about the banking providers refusing to reimburse consumers who feel they have been a victim of a cryptocurrency fraud or scam.
Anecdotal evidence suggests the increase in complaints about cryptocurrency complaints could be partly driven by social media-based scams.
Overall, the FOS received 50,906 complaints about financial businesses in the first three months of the financial year.
For the first time in over a decade, current accounts were the most complained about product. Consumers brought 6,911 complaints to the service.
This is an increase of 55% when compared with the same period last year. At that time the Ombudsman had received 4,466 complaints about current accounts.
Fraud and scams accounted for around half of the current account complaints that the FOS received in the first three months of this financial year.
Credit cards and car/motorcycle insurance were the other products where the service saw the highest number of complaints.
They represented respectively 4,039 and 2,427 complaints received by the FOS between April and June 2021.
