£629.3m stolen by fraudsters in 2025

Criminals stole £629.3 million in the first half of the year, a three per cent increase on the same period in 2024. There were over 2.09 million confirmed cases of fraud, a 17 per cent increase on this time last year according to latest UK Finance data.

There was a 12% increase in financial losses from authorised push payment (APP) fraud for the first half of this year, totalling £257.5 million.

The average loss per APP case was £2,325, with investment scams averaging £15,098. Despite an 8% decrease in APP cases to 110,747, the number of payments increased by 4%. £159.2 million was returned to victims, representing 62% of losses.

Losses from unauthorised transactions across payment cards, remote banking and cheques were £372 million in the first half of this year, a decrease of three per cent from the same period in 2024. The total number of recorded cases was just over 1.98 million, representing a 19 per cent increase. 

Within these figures, we saw some notable movements year on year: with Cheque fraud losses were down 41 per cent, and remote banking fraud losses were down nearly a quarter (minus 24 per cent).  Whilst the number of card-not-present fraud cases, which occur when a criminal uses stolen card details, increased by 22 per cent 

Banks are reporting ongoing challenges with criminals tricking victims into handing over one-time passcodes, which then allows criminals to register digital wallets and make fraudulent payments. 

Banks prevented £870 million of unauthorised fraud during the first half of the year, 20 per cent more than a year ago. Victims of unauthorised fraud cases such as these are legally protected against losses and UK Finance research indicates that customers are fully refunded in more than 98 per cent of these fraud cases. 

The main reason for the increase of APP losses was investment scams, when a criminal convinces their victim to move money into a fictitious fund or to pay for a fake investment. £97.7 million was stolen through this type of fraud, a 55 per cent increase on the same time last year. Investment fraud cases often involve larger amounts of money and it can take longer for individuals to recognise the scam. This means some of the losses reported will relate to cases that started in previous years. 

The losses from purchase scams, where a victim pays in advance for goods or services that are never received, continued to be the most common form of APP fraud and accounted for 72 per cent of all APP cases. Whilst losses increased by 10 per cent, cases fell by seven per cent.  The losses from romance scams, where victims are tricked into believing they are in a relationship, increased by 35 per cent. 

Whilst losses and cases relating to the impersonation of police or bank officials, and other forms of impersonation, dropped to a series of lows in the first half of this year, driven down in part by education campaigns. Total volume of cases fell by 16 per cent and losses fell by 14 per cent. 

In total, £159.2 million of APP losses were returned to victims in H1 2025, representing 62 per cent of the total amount stolen. In October 2024, the Payment Systems Regulator (PSR) introduced new reimbursement rules for APP fraud. They recently reported that 88 per cent of in-scope APP fraud losses were reimbursed. UK Finance’s data covers a wider range of payments and account types than those covered by the PSR rules, which means they are not directly comparable. 

APP fraud continues to be driven by the abuse of online platforms and telecommunications.

66 per cent of APP fraud cases began on online platforms, leading to 30 per cent of losses. 17 per cent of cases came from fraud originating on telecommunications platforms, as set out in the table below.

UK Finance is calling on the government to make prevention a central piece of its upcoming Fraud Strategy. The financial services industry cannot fight fraud alone, technology and telecommunications sectors need to be incentivised to contribute financially to fraud reimbursement, as well as sharing expertise and intelligence effectively. 

Ben Donaldson, Managing Director of Economic Crime at UK Finance, said “Fraud continues to be a major threat to our society and our economy, and criminals continue to adapt ways to steal victims’ money and funnel significant sums of money to criminal enterprises, impacting society greatly.

“Despite the ongoing investment and prevention measure by the industry, the majority of fraud originates outside the banking system, online and over the phone, where manipulation begins long before any payment is made.

“The scale of the threat is not commensurate with the current level of government investment in countering it or the insufficient action by other sectors. The government must prioritise prevention and hold the social media and telecommunications industries to account in its new fraud strategy.”