SKIPTON Building Society has saved customers and the society itself from losing over £61million to fraud during 2020.

Skipton's team of financial crime experts has seen fraud decrease by almost 45 per cent from 2019 due to additional measures implemented to protect customer funds and make product offerings unappealing to criminals.

These have specifically reduced instances of savings account frauds, such as authorised push payment fraud.

Ian Walker, Skipton's Head of Financial Crime, said: “This year has been a difficult year for many. Unfortunately, there will always be people out there looking to exploit the situation and its incredibly important for everyone to be clued up on the latest scams and fraud trends, from pension scams and phishing emails to Covid-19 and romance scams.

“At Skipton, we work hard to protect our customers and our team of experts are on hand to support customers who believe they may be a victim of fraud. The team this year alone have prevented over £60m in fraudulent mortgages and scams – spotting and preventing numerous attempts at defrauding others."