A total of £1.17bn was stolen from victims through financial fraud over 2023, research from UK Fiinance has revealed.
The firm's Annual Fraud Report 2024, found over a billion pounds was stolen across 2.97mn fraud cases last year.
AJ Bell director of personal finance, Laura Suter, pointed out this amounted to £3.2mn being stolen from the UK public every day last year.
Suter also said this represented a fall from “pandemic highs” as the amount stolen was 5 per cent less when compared with 2022 and 1 per cent compared with 2021.
However, the report clarified that not all forms of fraud had fallen over the past year with the number of authorised fraud cases rising by 12 per cent.
The total number of authorised fraud cases, where a loss occurred, rose from 207,372 in 2022 to 232,429 in 2023.
In contrast, the number of unauthorised fraud cases were found to have decreased between 2022 and 2023, falling from 2,781,311 to 2,734,934 - a 2 per cent decrease between the two years.
Suter pointed out more money had been stolen by fraudsters in recent years as, between 2020 and 2023, there was a 9 per cent increase in the amount of money being stolen through authorised scams.
She stated this figure highlights how scammers are targeting more victims for smaller amounts of money.
However, this is a trend that has dissipated in recent years as the research discovered the amount of money stolen in 2023 was 5 per cent less than the £485.2mn that was recorded in 2022.
Additionally, the report found unauthorised fraud cases prevented in 2023 experienced a 7 per cent rise year on year.
Some £1.2bn of unauthorised fraud was prevented in 2023, the equivalent of saving 64p for every £1 attempted to be stolen.
Fraud types
The report found there was a rise in particular types of fraudulent activities, such as the increased prevalence of romance scams.
Suter said in particular romance scams have boomed in recent years, hitting record highs last year and seeing a 17 per cent increase in the amount stolen compared to a year earlier.
“The amount stolen through romance scams reached £36.5mn last year, more than double the amount seen in 2020,” she said.
“What’s particularly heartbreaking is that scammers go back time and again to victims to get more and more payments from them - with the average victim handing over money 10 times.
“The fact that more dating is done online has opened the door for scammers to convince more victims that they are legitimate romantic partners.
“The fact that many victims keep these new relationships secret for a while means that friends and family don’t get the chance to cast doubt on their ‘new partner’s’ motives.”
But Suter said UK Finance’s figures “have to be taken with a pinch of salt” as the official fraud stats are just “the tip of the iceberg” when it comes to the true scale of fraud in the UK.
