Authorised push payment fraud detection for PSPs
APP fraud has a structural property that makes it resistant to conventional detection: the victim authorizes the payment themselves, from their own device, with genuine credentials. Every rule passes. The transaction clears. The fraud happened earlier, in the session, in the behaviour leading up to the payment screen.
In H1 2025, UK APP fraud losses reached £257.5 million, now 41% of all UK fraud losses and growing while other categories plateau. Under the PSR's mandatory reimbursement framework (PS24/5), that figure no longer sits with victims. It splits 50/50 between sending and receiving PSPs, with a per-claim cap of £85,000. For every firm in the payment chain, APP fraud has become a balance sheet question.
This playbook maps the full threat surface: all seven major APP scam typologies and their session-level behavioural fingerprints, the receiving-side mule problem most detection programs underweight, how AI voice cloning is outpacing classic impersonation controls, and what the PSR's reimbursement framework now requires in terms of evidence and explainability.
Inside, you'll find:
- Seven APP scam typologies with behavioural fingerprints: Investment/pig butchering, impersonation, romance, purchase, invoice/BEC, advance fee, and job/task scams, each with its distinct session signatures and average loss profile.
- A graduated intervention framework: A four-band risk model (Low to Critical) that matches friction to signal strength, including RAT-specific protocols where in-session challenges are counterproductive.
- Mule detection on the receiving side: Onboarding controls, post-activation monitoring patterns, and why standard payment-to-payment velocity models miss roughly 20% of mule account exits.
- The limits of Confirmation of Payee: Where CoP adds risk weight and where sophisticated fraudsters have already adapted around it.
- PSR compliance and evidence packaging: What the reimbursement framework requires from institutions, and how automated session evidence reduces FOS overturn risk.
Download the guide now for the full insights.
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