The National Bank of Poland (NBP) has published its regular report on the number and value of fraudulent transactions carried out using various non-cash payment methods between April and June 2026. The report shows that the second quarter was calmer in this respect than the first three months of the year – both the number and the total value of fraudulent transactions fell.

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According to the National Bank of Poland (NBP), a total of 99,700 fraudulent transactions involving non-cash payment instruments were carried out in the second quarter, of which 75,300 were card transactions and 24,400 were frauds involving transfer orders (no cases of fraud involving direct debit orders were recorded). This represents a 19.6 per cent decrease in the total number of such transactions compared with the first quarter of 2026 (a 10.9 per cent decrease in card fraud and a 38.1 per cent decrease in fraud involving bank transfers).

An even more significant decline was recorded in the value of fraudulent transactions – this stood at PLN 168.3 million, compared with PLN 268.9 million in the previous quarter. In assessing this decline, which amounted to as much as 37.4 per cent, the National Bank of Poland (NBP) highlights the base effect, i.e. the relatively high value of fraud in transfer orders in the preceding quarter.

Let me remind you that in the first quarter, fraud involving bank transfers reached a record value of 247.9 million PLN, which was reportedly linked to the discovery of several high-value fraud cases, each amounting to over a dozen million PLN. In the second quarter, however, the value of fraudulent transactions involving bank transfers stood at 142.9 million PLN. As for the value of card fraud, this, in turn, increased – by 21.3 per cent (to PLN 25.4 million) – but this had a relatively minor impact on the total value of fraudulent transactions. Card fraud, although three times more common than fraud involving bank transfers, is characterised by a much lower average value – as a result, the amount of fraud carried out in this way accounts for just 15.1 per cent of the total value of funds defrauded. The majority of payment card fraud cases involved remote payments made outside Poland without strong authentication (70.4 per cent).

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The central bank notes that, since the first quarter of 2024, there has been a marked increase in the scale of fraud carried out by persuading a manipulated payer to make a transfer or provide the details needed to authorise it – so-called ‘autofraud’. In the second quarter of 2026, such incidents accounted for 80.1 per cent of the total value of all fraud involving payment orders. We discussed this issue, as well as the banks’ approach to such situations, at the Forward Congress, which took place in Gdynia in September.

At the same time, the National Bank of Poland emphasises that both the value and the number of fraudulent transactions remain low in relation to the total volume of non-cash transactions. Indeed, they accounted for 0.0022 per cent of the number and 0.0015 per cent of the value of all transactions carried out using non-cash payment instruments.