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The U.K. banking industry lost 1.17 billion pounds ($1.6 billion) to fraud last year, as criminals carried out more than 3.3 million scams, according to new data from UK Finance, the trade association representing banks and financial institutions.
While the number of reported fraud cases surged by 12 percent between 2023 and 2024, the total amount stolen remained unchanged from the previous year.
Fraud now accounts for 41 percent of all reported crime in the country, making it the most widespread criminal offense in the U.K.
“[It] continues to be the most common crime in the U.K.,” said Ben Donaldson, managing director of economic crime at UK Finance.
 “We have likely all suffered its consequences, either by being a victim ourselves or knowing someone who has. We all live in a society which is damaged by the organised crime groups responsible for the bulk of fraud cases, who are also involved in other types of crime which cause further individual, societal and economic harm,” he added.
Most of the losses stemmed from unauthorized fraud—scams in which criminals make transactions without the account holder’s knowledge. These accounted for 722 million pounds ($972 million) across more than 3 million incidents, or roughly 61 percent of the year’s total fraud losses.
By contrast, so-called authorized fraud—where victims are tricked into sending money themselves—saw a slight decline in 2024, dropping to 450 million pounds ($606 million).
Stolen card data remained a key driver of fraud, hitting a record high of nearly 2.6 million cases last year. UK Finance said this rise was fueled by increasingly sophisticated social engineering tactics, which deceive victims into handing over one-time passcodes. Scammers then use these codes to carry out unauthorized transactions or register digital wallets using stolen card details.
Without stronger safeguards, U.K. residents continue to be exposed to sprawling international scam operations. A recent investigation by the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP), Swedish broadcaster SVT, and 30 other media partners, uncovered a global fraud network dubbed Scam Empire, involving call centers in Israel, Eastern Europe and Georgia targeting U.K. citizens and others.
Internal transaction records show that one Israeli-European scam network received over $240 million from investors between January 2021 and December 2024, the majority of whom were from the U.K., Canada, Spain, Australia, and South Africa.Â
In response to the growing threat, the U.K. government is expected to unveil a new fraud strategy later this year aimed at combating what it has called the country's “most commonly experienced crime.” The plan will prioritize cyberfraud, with a focus on new threats involving artificial intelligence.
Earlier this year, authorities began enforcing key parts of the Online Safety Act to address a wider range of online offenses, including cyber fraud, human trafficking, and child sexual abuse.
“To deal with this threat, we need a more proactive approach with the public and private sectors working more closely together and using data and intelligence more effectively,” Donaldson said. “We also need the technology and telecommunication sectors to step up and actually fight the fraud originating on their platforms and networks.”
