Fraud losses reached a staggering £629m in the first half of 2025, fuelled by new investment scams and an unprecedented level of card fraud, as criminals utilise AI to orchestrate more complex scams.
In the initial six months of 2025, over 2 million confirmed cases of fraud were reported, marking a 17 per cent increase, according to industry group º£½ÇÊÓƵ Finance. Criminals managed to pilfer £629.3m, a three per cent rise from previous figures, as reported by .
The total losses saw an uptick, primarily due to larger sums being swindled through authorised payment fraud (APP), which witnessed a 12 per cent surge to £257.5m.
Investment scams were identified as the main culprit, skyrocketing by a whopping 55 per cent to £97.7m. These now represent 38 per cent of total APP losses and have an average loss that is over 20 times greater than a purchase scam.
AI enables fraud
AI has been highlighted as a tool enabling fraud, with the industry group noting that it allows criminals to execute more sophisticated, high-volume scams using deepfakes and synthetic identities.
Jonathan Frost, global advisory director at BioCatch, commented: "The continued growth of APP fraud remains a major concern."
He added: "Stopping APP fraud will require more than just technology. It necessitates both better and cross-industry collaboration. The º£½ÇÊÓƵ market is primed for real-time intelligence-sharing and should embrace it to continue leading the global fight against fraud."
Despite the grim figures, banks have managed to thwart £870m of unauthorised fraud through advanced security systems, a 20 per cent increase compared to the first half of 2024.
However, it was noted that the majority of fraud originated on social media and telecommunications platforms.
As a consequence, º£½ÇÊÓƵ Finance has urged the government's forthcoming Fraud Strategy to ensure all sectors are held accountable in fraud prevention, maintaining that the financial services industry cannot combat this menace single-handedly.
Ben Donaldson, managing director of economic crime at º£½ÇÊÓƵ Finance, remarked: "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."
Just last month, the chair of the City of London Police Authority Board cautioned that fraud is "damaging the foundations of our nation" and the º£½ÇÊÓƵ must address it with the same urgency as street crime.
