Fraud is on the rise, according to figures released by CIFAS, the UK’s fraud prevention service.

Comparing the first half of this year with the same period in 2006, CIFAS members have seen a sharp rise in most types of financial fraud.

Application fraud (where fraudsters tell lies on application forms in order to obtain credit, insurance or other products) increased by nearly 19%, with 37,357 cases detected and filed by CIFAS members.

Although the scale of facility takeover and asset conversion cases is smaller, the increase between the first half of 2006 compared with the same period this year was surprisingly steep at almost 45% and 31% respectively.

False insurance claims also showed an increase during the period of more than 10%.

The most surprising statistic during this period is that identity fraud overall has stabilised when compared with the same period in 2006. That said, the number of cases identified, 39,261, is still high, with the number of victims increasing from 32,039 to 33,411.

CIFAS chief executive, Peter Hurst, explains: “The surge in current address fraud is particularly worrying because, in order to perpetrate it, the fraudster effectively needs a very thorough knowledge of the victim’s personal details.  This indicates that fraudsters are becoming more sophisticated and are managing to access more data about their victims.  This underlines the need for all of us to protect our personal details as carefully as possible, and not to take any chances.”