Introduction To The Contingent Reimbursement Model Code For Authorised Push Payment Scams

Authorised Push Payment or APP scams occur when fraudsters entice or trick victims into transferring or sending them money. APP scams include anything from unsophisticated fraudsters tricking victims into sending funds to what they believe is a legitimate business, to highly professional operations hacking victims' emails in order to mis-state account details on invoices. Victims range from vulnerable individuals to multi-million pound businesses.  

As internet payments have become faster and easier, the frequency and severity of APP fraud has steadily grown. In September 2016, Which? made a so-called super-complaint to the Payment Systems Regulator (PSR), calling on the regulator to conduct an investigation into how this problem could be mitigated. The PSR concluded that more could be done by banks to both identify and prevent APP scams. In February 2018, the PSR established the Authorised Push Payments Scams Steering Group.