UK sees one case of fraud every 85 seconds

A new study finds that £95 ($105) is lost to fraud every second in the UK. This is according to analysis by fraud prevention specialist Outseer of all the reported incidents of fraud to Action Fraud -- the UK's national reporting center for fraud and cybercrime -- between 1st July 2021 to 30th June 2022.

The data shows one case was reported to Action Fraud every 85 seconds and reported losses totalled over £3 billion ($3.31 billion) during the 12-month study period.

When looking at the most common attacks, fraud from online shopping and auctions is over 1.5x more common than the second most popular attack vector, advanced fee fraud, which had almost 29,000 reported cases.

Dating and romance scams remain widespread, with almost £100 million ($110 million) of reported financial losses over the past 12 months in this category, while financial investment fraud caused the most monetary damage, with reported losses totaling more than £409 million ($452 million).

"These numbers make for grim reading -- showing that fraud is now a part of everyday life for the British public," says Mark Crichton, head of product at Outseer. "Of even more concern is that the figures only scratch the surface of the true scale of the problem. The UK's National Crime Agency believes fewer than 20 percent of incidents of fraud are actually reported. Whether it’s fraudulent payments, brand impersonation or a dating scam, the reality is there's a huge number of victims and the consequences can be devastating -- with the average reported loss per victim at £8,100. This should be a wake-up call for businesses and consumers alike. Businesses must do more to detect and prevent fraudulent activity, or risk falling foul to the multi-billion-pound fraud economy."

You might assume that it's the less tech-savvy older generations that fall victim to fraud, but the data shows that the highest number of reports comes from the 20-39 age group, followed by those aged 40-59. But while the number of cases is higher in the younger age categories, the 60-79 and 80+ age groups on average lost more than twice the amount of money as 20-39-year-olds.

You can find out more on the Outseer blog.

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