Bank Robberies on the Wane as Cybercrimes Rise

The days of the bank heist appear to be on the wane as recent figures from the British Bankers Association show a 90% decrease in the number of hold-ups at branches over the last two decades.

While there were 849 bank robberies in 1992, the number fell to 66 in 2011.

BBA chief Anthony Browne said: "It's great to see that the number of these crimes have fallen sharply in recent years. Anyone trying to rob a bank now faces much better CCTV, protective screens that can rise in less than a second and even special fog designed to disperse criminals.

"Banks will continue to work closely with each other, post offices and the police to make such raids a thing of the past."

A University of Sussex study in 2012 estimated that on average a third of bank robberies made nothing from a raid at all.

The downward trend is not isolated to the UK. Recent figures from the FBI show that in 2012 only 3,780 bank robberies were committed - the lowest figure in decades - in the US.

Many banks store less money than they used to.

But with the risks of old-fashioned bank jobs increasing, criminals are turning to other methods to steal money.

Increasing numbers choose to steal cash in transit and cybercriminals have developed sophisticated ways of stealing money from individuals and businesses through the internet.

In December, police arrested four people in Enfield and Islington, London, suspected of being part of a scheme to steal more than £1m from two customer accounts using malicious software.

Officers seized £80,000 and a live grenade in the raids.

Three months previously, three men were charged with trying to steal millions of pounds from Santander by hacking its computer systems.

A recent investigation found cybercriminals selling customer login details for accounts containing hundreds of thousands of dollars for as little as $300.