UK fraud reports in 2025 reach record-breaking high

New figures from Cifas, the UK's leading fraud prevention service, show over 444,000 fraud cases were recorded in 2025, the highest ever and a 6% rise on 2024, averaging more than 1,200 cases a day.

Identity fraud and takeover of customer accounts accounted for 72% of reports, highlighting rising misuse of stolen personal data.

The surge is fuelled by scammers utilising AI tools - using AI to impersonate people and businesses, fake documents, crack passwords, and carry out mass information gathering.

How AI is driving scams

Artificial intelligence is accelerating the scale and sophistication of fraud. Here’s how scammers are using it:

To impersonate people you know or trust

AI voice‑cloning and deepfake tools can convincingly mimic someone’s voice or appearance, tricking victims into transferring money or sharing sensitive details.

Scammers can also use AI image generation to create fake images of friends and loved ones, making their scams all the more convincing.

Romance scams

Fraudsters now deploy AI‑powered chatbots to lure people into long‑term emotional relationships, maintaining convincing personas to extract money or personal information from their victims.

These AI chatbots can convincingly hold a conversation in almost any language, making it harder to determine whether you're talking to a real person or a machine.

As part of these romance scams, AI can be used to create fake evidence of hospital visits, bills, bank statements, and medical conditions - all reasons for the scammer to request money from their victim with the intention of "helping" them out of a difficult situation.

Mass spam

AI can be used to quickly and easily create fake accounts and profiles with the idea of luring people in.

This can come in the form of social media comments and posts, fake reviews, and phishing emails and phone calls to get you to click on dodgy links or send them money for fake products and services.

Credential attacks

AI tools can analyse patterns, scrape breached data and automate rapid‑fire login attempts, making it easier to crack passwords or bypass weak authentication.

To impersonate you

By gathering leaked personal information, scammers use AI‑enhanced social‑engineering tactics to impersonate you, gain access to your accounts, trick friends and loved ones, and use your personal details to set up cards and loans in your name.

Kara Gammell
Personal Finance & Insurance Expert

The new fraud tactic on the rise

One particular type of fraud that has ben increasing over the last few years is SIM swapping - up 38% in 2025.

This type of fraud involves a scammer using personal information to impersonate an individual and trick their mobile phone service provider into transferring their phone number to a new SIM card.

This allows scammers to intercept phone calls and text messages. They can then use your phone number to access sensitive online accounts like social media and banking apps, use multi-factor authentication codes, reset account passwords, and access all kinds of sensitive information.

How to protect yourself

While scams are growing more sophisticated, you can reduce your risk by taking a few key steps:

How to spot a phishing scam

Phishing and imposter scams are the most common types of scams - where a scammer impersonates a trusted friend or business to get money or personal information from you.

Whether they're reaching out via email, messenger app, or with a phone call, you need to always be cautious of unexpected messages, even if it seems like they're from someone you trust.

Criminals have lots of sophisticated ways of pretending to be someone they're not, so here are a few tips to prevent you from getting caught out:

1. Consider what they're asking

Does the person want you to send them money or personal details? Take a moment to question whether this is a normal thing.

Banks, for example, will never ask you to disclose personal details over email and HMRC would never ask you to send money over a text message. A legitimate business will almost never ask for money in the form of cryptocurrency or gift cards.

2. Don't give in to nerves

Many scams work by making people feel nervous or pressured to act quicky, preventing their victims from thinking too carefully about what's going on.

If you receive any messages that give you a time limit to respond or are threatening things like arrest or large fines, keep calm and take your time to think through your decisions.

If you've received a suspicious phone call, try asking them 'Can I call you back?'. If they refuse to let you hang up and call back later, it could be a scammer trying to keep you on the hook.

3. Don't be afraid to ask questions

There are certain scams or attempts at fraud that can easily fall apart by victims simply asking questions.

For example, if a friend or relative is contacting you unexpectedly and asking for money or personal details, ask them questions that only the real person would know the answer to: 'what is my favourite colour?'; 'where did we go for lunch last weekend?'; 'how many pets do I have?'.

If they refuse to answer or answer incorrectly, it may be a scammer trying to trick you.

4. Confirm their contact information

Phishing emails and messages are one of the most common tactics used by cyber criminals. Before responding to an unusual message, confirm that the contact details of the person reaching out to you are correct.

Check email addresses and phone numbers for any discrepancies, like misspellings, and check business websites to confirm customer support contact details.

Be aware that scammers have ways of "spoofing" phone numbers and email addresses, so even if the contact information looks correct, it's not always guaranteed to be real.

If 'spoofing' is a concern, try reaching out to the business or person using alternative contact details. For example, if you've received a strange email, try phoning the person instead of emailing them back to confirm if the email is legitimate.

Kara Gammell
Personal Finance & Insurance Expert

To fight scams, we need to protect those most vulnerable

Criminals typically target vulnerable people, like older people and people who may not be confident with technology. With AI advancing at lightning speed, that pool of vulnerable people for them to victimise is growing.

To protect vulnerable loved ones, there are certain things you can do to reduce their risk.

Make sure all of their devices have updated anti-virus protection, their social media profiles are set to 'private', their email spam filters are turned on, and set their phones to silence unknown callers, cutting scammers off at first contact.

Consider adding safeguards for vulnerable loved ones, like transaction limits, which you can set up through an online banking app or contacting the bank directly.

You should also prepare them for what to do if they receive alarming or suspicious messages - who to contact for help and red flags to look out for - and write it down to help them remember.

For further guidance on how to prevent fraud, you can find practical tips and advice on the Take Five to Stop Fraud website - a national campaign led by UK Finance to empower individuals to spot and prevent attempts of fraud and scams.

^{Sources
Cifas Fraudscape report 2026}