Bank account fraud at high

Published on 11/06/2012 00:56

Current account fraud has reached its highest level in at least three years, mainly due to people lying about their finances, a study suggested today.

About 44 in every 10,000 current account applications were found to be fraudulent in the first quarter of this year, a 23 per cent rise on the last three months of 2011, Experian said.

The rate is the highest since Experian’s records began in spring 2009 and was the biggest driver behind a 16 per cent jump in financial services fraud rates generally compared with the previous quarter.

Nineteen in every 10,000 applications for financial services generally were found to be fraudulent in the first three months of this year.

The study found that current account fraud often involved “financially stressed” people exaggerating or hiding aspects of their personal circumstances, such as not revealing bad credit histories when trying to open an account or apply for an overdraft.