Contactless crooks take advantage of wave and pay rise

Contactless-related fraud is on the rise in the capital. City of London Police data, obtained by The Daily Telegraph, shows there have been 5,415 reports of fraud since 2013, with a significant increase since 2015 when the amount at which a purchase can be made without a pin was increased from £20 to £30.

There were 31 incidents reported in 2013 but that shot up to 2,739 between April 2017 and January this year. The total value of reported theft across those years was £3.5 million, with an average loss of £652. The largest single report, from a bank highlighting an issue with multiple fraudulent contactless payments, weighed in at £400,000.