Nearly eight cases of fraud are reported in the UK every minute, with criminals using artificial intelligence to mimic voices of family and friends – and even marrying romance scam victims to steal more money. More than four million cases involving stolen money were reported last year, an increase of more than one million in two years, according to an annual report by UK Finance. Almost £1.3bn was taken by scammers in 2025.
Banks described fraud as “a national security threat”, given the impact on victims and the huge sums stolen by organised criminals. Paul Davis, head of economic crime at Barclays, said: “The impact goes beyond financial loss; it can cause huge emotional harm, leaving victims burdened by guilt and shame, which is why we must tackle the problem at its source to protect consumers.”
“Nearly eight fraud cases are reported every minute in the UK, with £1.3bn stolen last year as criminals use AI.”
The true scale may be far larger, as experts believe the majority of scams go unreported.
Fraudsters are becoming increasingly sophisticated. UK Finance said criminals used AI to mimic voices of celebrities and even of victims’ own family and friends, making people more susceptible even if they did not consider themselves vulnerable. Romance scams have become particularly insidious, with fraudsters using fake profiles on social media and dating sites to groom victims. In some cases, they married victims to continue stealing money.
Kirsty Guest, a florist from North Yorkshire, was scammed out of £80,000 after meeting a man who called himself Patrick on a dating app. The relationship developed over months, but Patrick was using photos of an innocent man. After claiming he had been in an accident on a work trip, he tricked her into sending thousands of pounds. “Fraudsters are professional and they are making massive volumes of money,” she told the BBC in May. “They’re intelligent in what they’re doing.”
Julie Osgood, 60, recently told the BBC that the first four men matched with her when she tried a dating site were all potential fraudsters. She spotted the problem before losing money, but many thousands were not so lucky.
The banking trade body said the enormous scale of the problem could only be tackled if tech companies stepped up monitoring and security of their platforms.