Fasten your seatbelt. Over 1,000 Poles lose money every day
The number of fraudulent financial transactions is growing dynamically, but on a nationwide scale there are still relatively few of them – according to NBP data. Only, it all depends on the reference point.
Theft of online banking login details or card number fraud are incidents that we hear about quite regularly. Not only from the mouths of the police or other institutions dealing with security, but also from friends, many of whom have heard about this phenomenon at least once. Or even has a cyberattack victim in his circle.
What may seem surprising in this context, As the National Bank of Poland argues in its report, the scale of fraud is still minimal. In the fourth quarter of 2023, frauds and thefts committed via non-cash payment instruments, according to the data presented, accounted for only 0.003%. all transactions in numerical terms and only 0.0006 percent in terms of value. However, this does not mean that the problem does not exist.
Fraudy is a niche, but it is growing dynamically
The trend line looks less optimistic because the numerical increase in cases of theft or extortion quarter by quarter is 21.6%, and the quantitative increase is 24.3%. Statistically, the probability of losing money increases at a significant rate, although there is also a nuance associated with it.
If criminals manage to obtain other people's funds, then… This usually happens as a result of taking over your payment card details. Illegal operations ordered in online banking are much rarer, and the popularity of other theft techniques is within limits statistical error. According to information obtained from banks, 86.3 thousand were recorded. cases of unauthorized use of cards in the amount of PLN 24.9 million, which in relation to Q3 means an increase in the number of illegal transactions by 23.3% and their value by 2.8%.
An interesting fact, however, is that settlement agents provide completely different data. These, as noted by Cashless, show only 7,000. fraudulent transactions amounting to PLN 5.1 million, i.e. by 11.3 and 17.2 percent, respectively. less f/k. Let us just remember that it is in their interest to minimize the amount of losses.
In the background, 9,392 frauds related to transfer orders were documented. Thus, the already mentioned lower popularity of this method is striking, although the sum of losses is much higher – PLN 79 million. Let us add that in this case, the increase in the QoQ number is quite modest 7.4%, but the value growth is a trivial 33.1%.
These seem like fractions of a permille, but…
Ultimately, the central bank's communication can be treated as reassuring, although much depends on the point of reference. Looking at the data on a daily basis, it is not so easy to find peace. Please note that 86.3 thousand card frauds from October to December give an average of over 938 victims per day, and 9.4 thousand transfer orders – 102.
The facts are that every day, fraudsters rob thousands of people in Poland. And perhaps the only thing that matters for our national pride is the fact that, as summarized by the National Bank of Poland, most of the incidents are related to activities taking place outside the country.
