Fraud in the UK increased by 17% year-on-year, according to UK Finance’s half year fraud report, with 2.09 million confirmed cases in the first half of this year.

Criminals stole £629.3 million in the first half of 2025, a three per cent increase on the same period in 2024.

According to UK Finance, banks prevented £870 million of unauthorised fraud through advanced security systems, 20% more than in the first half of 2024 and equivalent to 70p in ever £1 attempted.

Authorised push payment (APP) fraud losses increased by 12% year-on-year, amounting to £257.5m in the first half of 2025, while actual cases fell by 8% to 110,747.

The main culprit behind the increase of APP losses was investment scams, which is when a criminal convinces their victim to move money into a fake fund or to pay for a fake investment. This fraud accounted for £97.7m stolen, a 55% increase from the same time last year. Some of the losses reported in investment scams may involve cases that started in previous years as they involve larger sums of money and can take longer for individuals to recognise the scam.

However, purchase scams were still the biggest contributors to APP cases, accounting for 72%. Losses in this category increased by 10%, though cases fell by 7%.

Romance scam losses increased by 35%, while losses related to police or bank official impersonation fell by 14%.

Unauthorised fraud transactions cases amounted to 1.98, a 19% increase from last year. Losses amounted to £372m, a decrease of 3%.

Cheque fraud loss was down by 41%, while remote banking fraud losses were down by 24%.

The number of card not present fraud cases, which occur when a criminal uses stolen card details, increased by 22%.

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Banks were able to prevent £870 million losses from unauthorised fraud during the first half of 2025, a 20% increase from last year.

“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, impacting society greatly,” Ben Donaldson, Managing Director of Economic Crime at UK Finance, said.

“Despite the ongoing investment and prevention measure 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.

“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.”