UK fraud losses hit GBP £1.28 billion as scams rise

Fraud losses in the UK rose to £1.28 billion in 2025, according to FICO, which linked the increase to a shift towards scams that manipulate victims rather than break into accounts.

Figures cited by the analytics group showed that more than four million fraud cases were reported across the UK during the year. The pattern of losses suggests criminals are moving away from attacks that rely on technical access and towards fraud that persuades people to make payments themselves.

James Roche, Fraud Consultant at FICO, said the strongest growth came in authorised payment fraud, where victims approve transactions after being deceived. Losses in that category rose 19% to £576.4 million.

Within that total, so-called malicious payee fraud was a main driver. In these cases, victims believe they are paying for a legitimate product, service or investment.

Investment scams rose 40% to £221.5 million. Purchase scams increased 20% to £118.1 million, while romance fraud climbed 23% to £39.2 million and advance fee scams jumped 65% to £58.4 million.

By contrast, losses from malicious redirection scams fell to their lowest level since 2020. In these cases, criminals impersonate police officers, bank staff, chief executives or procurement staff to divert payments.

"Every scam that requires technical access to an account is declining," Roche said.

"Every scam that requires psychological access to a person is accelerating. This is because fraud prevention systems were designed to detect unauthorised access. Now they need to identify people who are being tricked in real time."

Card fraud

Unauthorised card fraud followed a different pattern. The number of card fraud cases rose 11%, but losses were broadly flat, suggesting criminals are targeting larger numbers of victims for smaller amounts.

"Criminals are targeting far more people for smaller sums in this space, perhaps because the perpetrators are less sophisticated fraudsters using compromised cards or stolen cards," Roche said.

Remote purchase fraud, also known as card-not-present fraud, now accounts for more cases than all other unauthorised fraud categories combined, FICO said. It pointed to social engineering tactics used to obtain one-time passcodes for digital wallet registration as a key factor.

The figures reflect a broader change in how fraud is organised, according to Roche. He said criminals are moving away from one-off or physical attacks and towards broader networks built around exploiting victims directly.

"Criminals are shifting from system compromises to human exploitation and from opportunistic or physical fraud to organised fraud ecosystems," Roche said.

That shift is also changing what banks and payment providers need from fraud controls. FICO said firms must assess customer intent before a payment is authorised, monitor behaviour in real time and share information more effectively across teams and systems.

Roche said the industry was moving away from isolated tools aimed at single risks and towards shared platforms that combine signals across different products and channels. He added that banks needed to use artificial intelligence more effectively than fraudsters while keeping decisions explainable.

FICO also referred to work involving its Scam Signal service and Jersey Telecom, which uses telecommunications data to flag when a consumer may be under pressure during a live conversation, such as an impersonation scam. Roche said that can give a bank a chance to contact a customer before money is sent.

"We are seeing a real impact from the use of our innovative Scam Signal solution, in collaboration with Jersey Telecom," Roche said.

"This solution uses telecommunications data to identify when a consumer may be being tricked in a conversation such as an impersonation scam, enabling the bank to reach out to the consumer and thwart the attempt."

Changing tactics

Roche said the next stage of the response would depend on a fuller view of customer behaviour across channels and products, as well as preparation for fraud threats linked to agent-led interactions and newer prevention technology.

"Fraud teams need a deep cross-channel, cross-product, customer-centric view of everything their customers do, and who they are," Roche said.

"This is how banks win against the fraudsters. The banks' advantage is that they can create context and deep-level relationships to protect customers when they need them the most. Fraudsters can't achieve that; they deploy the same strategies to many, hoping to find the most susceptible people."