SOME £208million was scammed via bank transfers in the first half of this year, a finance body has revealed.

Banks were able to trace £73.1million — around a third — and return it to the victims, UK Finance said.

The scams were all “authorised push payments”, where the customer was fooled into sending funds.

A total of 66,247 cases were reported from January to June, a 15 per cent rise on last year.

Of those, 63,186 related to personal accounts while the other 3,061 were non-personal or business-related.

UK Finance’s Katy Worobec warned: “Always take a moment to stop and think before parting with your money.”

UK Finance also warned there is often a delay between criminals obtaining people's details and using them to commit fraud.

The full losses from Covid-19-related scams in the first half of this year are still unknown.

UK Finance is urging customers to follow the advice of the Take Five To Stop Fraud campaign.

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