Scammers steal over £600 million from Brits - how to protect yourself

More than £600 million was stolen by fraudsters in the first half of 2025, as scam cases surged across the UK.

From pensions fraud, investment scams to banking account theft - criminals pocketed £629 million from unsuspecting victims, according to UK Finance - a 3% rise on the same period in 2024.

Meanwhile, there were over 2 million cases of fraud - a 17% hike from the first half of 2024.

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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.

“Despite the ongoing investment and prevention measures 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.”

UK Finance, a trade body represents around 300 financial firms including Nationwide, Revolut and Monzo, said the number of authorised push payment (APP) fraud cases fell by 8% to 110,747 in the first half of this year compared to the first half of 2024, although total losses from these cases rose by 12% to £257.5 million.

APP scams are when someone is tricked into sending money to a fraudster posing as a genuine person.

The top scams to know about

Of the more than 110,000 cases of APP fraud, 66% were triggered online while 16% were driven via telecommunication means such as scam calls.

Meanwhile, losses from unauthorised transactions via bank cards, remote banking and cheques totalled £372million, a fall of 3% from the same period in 2024 but with the total number of cases rising by 19% to 1.98million.

UK Finance said banks did manage to prevent £870million worth of fraud from being committed - 20% more than a year ago.

Jonathan Frost, global advisory director at BioCatch, which provides software to detect fraudulent activity on mobile and web apps, said: “Whilst UK banks prevented £870 million worth of unauthorised fraud in the first half of 2025, equivalent to 70p out of every pound, fraudsters continue to prove among the world’s greatest innovators, making away with more than £600 million from UK consumers in just six months.

“The continued growth of authorised push payment (APP) fraud remains a major concern. Stopping APP fraud will require more than just technology.”

The government is expected to announce a new expanded fraud strategy early next year, as ministers look to tackle threats both domestically and internationally.

Around 70% of fraud now includes an “international element” while 50% of all online crime in the UK is fraud and cyber-related.

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) also said cases of fraud increased by 31% across the UK last year.

Meanwhile, on September 1, new legislation came into effect making it illegal for bigger firms to profit from fraud.

Under the Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act 2023, larger organisations can be held criminally liable where an employee, agent, subsidiary, or other “associated person” commits a fraud intending to benefit the organisation.

Source: UK Finance

Three top tips for avoiding scammers

There are a number of steps you can take to protect yourself from scams. Some of these include;

- Never give out personal information including your name, address, bank details, email or phone number, to organisations before checking they are legitimate.

- Make sure your computer, laptop and phone has up-to-date anti-virus software installed which will block any malware.

- Beware phishing emails or texts pretending to be legitimate. Telltale signs of a phishing message include grammatical errors, urgent language and suspicious-sounding email addresses or numbers.