More than 6,500 fraud instances per year are reported in relation to PayPoint, Payzone and Post Office (PO) services, leaving shop owners and customers out of pocket. 

Freedom of information requests sent by RN to the National Fraud Intelligence Bureau revealed 50 scams exploiting the services, ranging from extortion to romance scams. 

With only one in five fraud incidents reported, the threat to partnered retailers is likely much higher, equivalent to one crime using the store services taking place every 16 minutes. 

The number of incidents has risen every year for the past four years, driven by the PO, where fraud reports increased by more than 60%, and now account for nearly 98% of all incidents across the three companies. 

How to deal with retail crime and beef up your shop security

Despite PayPoint and Payzone offering similar services, despite having half as many sites the four years of data showed Payzone (577 incidents) is 10 times more likely to be exploited by criminals than PayPoint (51 incidents).