More than four million cases of fraud in which money was stolen were reported in the UK last year – the equivalent of nearly eight every minute, according to new figures from UK Finance. The total has increased by more than one million in two years, with almost £1.3bn stolen by scammers in 2025.
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. Banks described fraud as 'a national security threat', given the impact on victims and the huge sums stolen by organised criminals.
“More than four million fraud cases reported last year, with nearly £1.3bn stolen – equivalent to eight crimes every minute.”
The human cost is devastating. Julie Osgood, 60, told the BBC that the first four men matched with her on a dating site were all potential fraudsters – she spotted the problem before being tricked, but many thousands were not so lucky. 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 was based on a lie: Patrick was a scammer using photos of an innocent man. After claiming he had been in an accident on a work trip, he tricked Kirsty into sending thousands of pounds.
'They are professional and they are making massive volumes of money,' Kirsty told the BBC. 'They're intelligent in what they're doing.'
Criminals are now using artificial intelligence to commit fraud at greater volume and sophistication. They have used AI to mimic the voices of celebrities and even those of victims' own family and friends, making people more susceptible to being scammed – often at a vulnerable moment, even if the victim did not consider themselves vulnerable.
'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,' said Paul Davis, head of economic crime at Barclays.
Experts believe the majority of scams are unreported, meaning the true scale is even larger than the figures suggest.