Research, Survey and Statistics

In 2023, a huge £2.3billion was lost to fraud in the UK, with reported cases rising by 18%.

But which types of fraud are rising the most quickly? And what steps can be taken to avoid falling victim?

The experts at Scams.info have studied the number of reports across a five year period to determine which fraud types are most on the rise, and which types are becoming less common.

The annual research by the trade body found the number of scam cases dropped last year. But more than £1bn was stolen by criminals.

Fraudsters were less successful with their scam activity in 2023 but still managed to steal £3.2m a day, new figures from UK Finance have suggested.

https://moneyweek.com/personal-finance/uk-finance-scam-report-fraud-banks-criminals

People contacting a financial scams helpline over the past year have typically lost more than £16,000, according to a Government-backed body. The Money and Pensions Service (MaPS) said that, between April 2023 and March 2024, the 833 people who contacted a dedicated helpline lost a total of £13.6 million.

https://uk.news.yahoo.com/16-000-warning-issued-everyone-132933188.html

Financial organisations reported a case of fraud to the national database every two minutes, data reveals.

Despite the startling regularity, the number of cases fell by 9% in 2023 compared to the year before, dropping to 374,160 cases. It also remains the largest reported crime to the police, with 40% of all crimes being fraud.

The level of fraud in the UK jumped 30% to almost £1bn in 2005, according to the latest Fraudtrack report from accountants BDO Stoy Hayward.

Pure greed was the primary motivation in two-thirds of cases, closely followed by the need to gamble or pay off debts. And the most popular ways of committing fraud are conning the tax man and awarding business contracts to family or friends.

More than £612mn was lost to investment fraud in the UK past year, the City of London Police has revealed.

Data from Action Fraud reported £612,208,663 in losses in the past year with people aged 55 and over more likely to be targeted by investment fraudsters.

https://www.ftadviser.com/investments/2024/04/09/more-than-612mn-lost-through-investment-fraud-in-past-year/

Police in Staffordshire and the West Midlands have received more than 21,000 reports of fraud over the past 13 months.

New research has revealed that West Midlands Police received 15,829 individual reports, while Staffordshire Police received 5,680.

The analysis, carried out by QR Code Generator QRFY, looked at data from Action Fraud and the Office for National Statistics to uncover how many reports each police force had in England and Wales, and the most common type of fraud.

UK fraud leapt alarmingly in 2023. Whilst the volume reported at £2.3bn, was the second-largest annual fraud total in the last decade and represented a 104% increase on 2022, more than half of it derived from just two long-running cases.

The number of reported cases was also up by 18% this year to a three-year high, however it remains significantly below pre-pandemic levels.

The amount of money lost to fraudsters in the UK during 2023 more than doubled to a total of £2.3bn, a report finds.

Victims of high-value fraud – cases involving losses of over £50,000 – shot up by 60% last year, while half were for losses of over £200m, which is almost triple the amount compared to 2022.

https://www.yourmoney.com/household-bills/news-household-bills/money-lost-to-fraud-in-the-uk-more-than-doubles-to-2-3bn/

Figures published today from KPMG UK’s Fraud Barometer, which records alleged fraud cases with a value of £100k and above, has shown the number of reported fraud cases outside of the London region rose to 183 cases in 2023, up from 172 in 2022.

Within this, the Midlands had 37 cases reaching Crown Courts last year, second only to London with 43 cases.