Government publishes call for evidence in relation to unauthorised fraud in the UK

On 15 July 2026, the government published a call for evidence in relation to unauthorised fraud in the UK.

Background

The government sets out that unauthorised fraud refers to fraudulent transactions made without the account holder’s knowledge or consent where access is gained to a bank account, payment card, or remote banking channel and make transactions or withdraw funds without the victim’s participation or approval. Unlike authorised push payment (APP) fraud, where victims are deceived into making the payment themselves, unauthorised fraud occurs without the victim doing anything to initiate, approve, or enable the transaction.

For the purposes of this Call for Evidence the government notes that unauthorised card fraud, unauthorised remote banking fraud and unauthorised cheque fraud are treated as the main categories of unauthorised fraud.

Summary

The government explains that it is undertaking a comprehensive review of the UK’s response to unauthorised fraud and is seeking data, intelligence, case studies, operational insights, technical assessments, and evaluations of existing or proposed prevention measures, including setting out questions in relation to the following:

• Criminal Methodologies & Emerging Threats: The government is asking for information such as what respondents consider to be unauthorised fraud; how organisations differentiate unauthorised fraud from authorised fraud;  what types of unauthorised fraud organisations been exposed to; methodologies criminals use to commit unauthorised fraud; for evidence on the scale and nature of first‑party fraud within unauthorised fraud,, and on emerging threats.

• Drivers of Unauthorised Fraud: The government asks for information on the following issues including what factors are causing or enabling unauthorised fraud to happen; what technologies or digital developments are being exploited to enable unauthorised fraud; what role has the growth of digital wallets played. and how is artificial intelligence used to enable and prevent unauthorised fraud and how is this likely to evolve.

• Origins of Unauthorised Fraud: The government asks for evidence on where unauthorised fraud attacks most commonly originate and whether criminals use more than one step or channel to carry out unauthorised fraud, and how do these stages interact.

• Barriers to Reducing Unauthorised Fraud: The government has asked for information on the main barriers to reducing unauthorised fraud; the most effective way to address these barriers, and which actors are best placed to do so; how do organisations balance commercial interest, such as speed and accessibility, with robust security and customer protection, and what incentives exist to tackle unauthorised fraud.

• Existing measures to address Unauthorised Fraud: The government also wants to understand what steps organisations have taken to prevent or reduce unauthorised fraud, and how effective have these measures been in practice; what are firms’ current transaction risk monitoring and analysis capabilities to identify and prevent unauthorised fraud, and how can they be improved, and are there any examples of best practice, in the UK or internationally.

• Technical Standards, Controls & Authentication: The government has also asked for evidence in relation to how effective current authentication methods are and what weaknesses in technical standards and regulatory requirements are most commonly exploited.

• Future Policy & Regulatory Intervention: Finally, the government asks questions in relation to what options it should consider to close vulnerabilities and strengthen defences.

Next steps

The government has asked for responses by 7 October 2026.