📊 THE STATE OF UK FRAUD: 2024 IN NUMBERS
The UK Finance Annual Fraud Report 2025 paints a stark picture. While individual loss amounts have stabilised, case numbers have surged to record highs — meaning more people than ever are falling victim to scams.
🔢 HEADLINE FIGURES
- £1.17 billion — Total fraud losses across UK payment systems in 2024
- 3.31 million cases — A 12% jump from 2023 and the highest number ever recorded
- 50% of all online crime in the UK is now digital fraud
- £459.7 million lost to Authorised Push Payment (APP) fraud alone
- 160,726 APP fraud cases reported, with £121.5 million returned to victims
💸 WHERE THE MONEY GOES
- Purchase scams — Account for 7 in 10 APP scams. Average loss: £663 per case (up from £606 in 2020). Now the second-largest category by total loss.
- Investment scams — Cases fell 24% but losses surged 34% — the first rise since 2021. Account for nearly a third of all APP losses. Criminals are going after bigger targets.
- Romance scams — Average loss exceeds £10,000 per victim. Emotional devastation on top of financial loss.
- CEO/impersonation fraud — Losses increased year-on-year as criminals use AI to create convincing fake communications.
📱 WHERE SCAMS START
- 76% of purchase scams originate on social media (Lloyds Banking Group)
- Social media platforms remain the number one hunting ground for scammers, despite platform promises to crack down
- Only 1 in 7 fraud crimes are reported to police (ONS Crime Survey) — the real numbers are far higher
- AI tools are enabling more convincing scams at scale — deepfake videos, voice cloning, and AI-written phishing messages
✅ THE GOOD NEWS
- New APP fraud reimbursement rules (October 2024) mean banks must reimburse victims up to £85,000 within 35 business days
- The banking industry prevented £710 million of APP fraud through detection systems in 2024
- Cross-industry collaboration through UK Finance is improving scam detection
- You can protect yourself — awareness is the single most effective tool against fraud
📞 REPORT FRAUD
- Action Fraud — 0300 123 2040 or actionfraud.police.uk
- Suspicious emails — report@phishing.gov.uk
- Scam texts — Forward to 7726
- Your bank — Call immediately if you’ve sent money to a scammer
Sources: UK Finance Annual Fraud Report 2025, ONS Crime Survey, Lloyds Banking Group, HSBC, Action Fraud