Every day, thousands of people across the United Kingdom wake up to find their bank accounts emptied, their identities stolen, or their personal information exploited online. Fraud and cybercrime have become silent epidemics, infiltrating homes, businesses, and even government institutions with alarming speed. From intricate phishing schemes to large-scale corporate fraud, criminals are constantly adapting their methods, exploiting technological gaps and human vulnerabilities alike. The financial toll is profound, but the consequences extend far beyond money – trust is eroded, systems are destabilised, and the ripple effects are felt across society, affecting individuals, businesses, and the economy alike.
This rising tide of fraud and cybercrime inspired the team at RationalFX to investigate the patterns and impacts of these offences across the United Kingdom. Using fraud report data from the UK’s Action Fraud centre between October 2024 and October 2025, we collected statistics on the number of reports, reported losses, victim demographics, reporting methods, and crime distribution across the 48 UK police forces. This dataset provides a clear snapshot of where and how the most prevalent crimes are affecting individuals and communities.
We found out that the most ruinous crimes are not the most common ones at all: pyramid and Ponzi schemes caused £164.5 million in losses from under 5,000 cases, for instance. Social media and email hacking, however, rank second after оnline shopping and аuction fraud in sheer volume, with over 57,000 incidents reported within 13 months. Yet the average loss per report is just £31, revealing a stark split between big-ticket fraud and everyday online attacks.
Fraud and Cybercrimes with the Biggest Losses in 2025
Data Source: ArcGIS Online, NFIB Fraud and Cyber Crime Dashboard
UK’s Costliest Frauds: When Rarity Meets Financial Devastation
Spread across the page, the losses form a pattern of disproportion: a world where a single scheme can empty pockets faster than thousands of minor cons combined. Pyramid and Ponzi schemes account for the single largest financial toll, draining £164.5 million from 4,878 victims, proof that the promise of effortless profit remains one of fraud’s most potent lures. Banking-related crime, spanning compromised cards and breached online accounts, reached a comparable £150.8 million in losses, though spread across tens of thousands of everyday transactions that criminals quietly exploit.
Romance scams, often unfolding slowly and out of sight, drained £113.4 million from unsuspecting victims, showing just how costly emotional manipulation can become when trust is weaponised. Yet perhaps the most startling figure comes from driving licence application fraud: a mere 71 cases resulted in £98.2 million lost, hinting at a cluster of highly orchestrated schemes operating with extraordinary precision. Even the seemingly mundane online shopping scams, bogus tradesmen, and rental deceptions have amassed tens of millions in losses when viewed at scale.
Fraud and Cybercrimes with the Highest Number of Reports in 2025
Data Source: ArcGIS Online, NFIB Fraud and Cyber Crime Dashboard
Social Media & Email Hacking on the Rise- But Criminals Barely Need to Steal Anything
Even when individual losses are small, some crimes dominate through sheer volume, revealing the hidden scale of fraud and cybercrime across the UK. Online shopping and auction fraud registers the greatest volume of cases at 58,559, an alarming number that signals how easily everyday consumers fall prey to digital deception. Almost equally pervasive is hacking of social media and email accounts, with 57,493 incidents over the past year. Yet, the average financial loss is a mere £31, meaning high-frequency, low-value attacks now form the backbone of the UK’s cybercrime ecosystem.
Banking fraud, dating scams, and ticket fraud all exceeded 10,000 reports, but perhaps the more ‘impressive’ are offences like computer viruses, personal hacking, and door-to-door scams: individually modest in financial impact, they collectively create an invisible tide of risk, sweeping across households, small businesses, and digital platforms alike. In short, the most reported crimes reveal a pattern of relentless, minor attacks that, while rarely catastrophic in isolation, cumulatively expose millions to fraud every year.
Worst Scams in the UK: Reports by Gender in 2025
Fraud reports for the 13 months ending 14 November 2025
*Gender N/A includes respondents who did not report gender and businesses
Data Source: ArcGIS Online, NFIB Fraud and Cyber Crime Dashboard
Who Falls Victim? The Gender Divide in UK Fraud
The gender breakdown of UK fraud victims reveals some surprising and, at times, counterintuitive patterns. High-value investment and inheritance schemes disproportionately affect men, with pyramid or Ponzi schemes (54% male), inheritance fraud (56% male), and share sales or boiler room scams (59% male) at the forefront, perhaps reflecting men’s greater participation in investment activities or higher likelihood of encountering aggressive financial solicitations. In contrast, consumer-targeted scams like hacking extortion (46% female vs 37% male), consumer phone fraud (44% female vs 38% male), ticket fraud (43% female vs 39% male), and door to door sales scams (40% female vs 36% male) show a stronger impact on women, potentially tied to the social and relational contexts these crimes exploit, as well as targeted online campaigns.
A striking feature of many digital and cyber-dependent crimes is the high proportion of victims with undisclosed gender, reflecting either anonymity, organisational targets, or hesitancy to report. Social media and email hacking skews slightly female (38%) but shows 33% gender undisclosed, while highly technical or systemic frauds stand out even more: Driving licence applications fraud (89% gender not disclosed), server hacking (96% undisclosed), and telecom contract fraud (85% undisclosed). These patterns suggest that a significant share of victims are organisations or institutions rather than individuals.
Beyond the numbers, the data hints at underlying mechanisms: financial schemes exploit wealth and opportunity, relational scams prey on trust, and systemic or technical frauds often target entities where gender is irrelevant or unreported, highlighting the diversity of fraud’s reach and the varied profiles of those affected.
Targeted Tactics: Fraud Across the Generations
Fraud patterns closely mirror the digital habits and social circumstances of different age groups, revealing how criminals adapt their methods to exploit specific vulnerabilities. Younger victims (19 and under) are most often affected by online shopping and auction scams, likely due to high digital engagement and limited experience with online marketplaces. Adults aged 20–59 are overwhelmingly targeted by social media and email hacking, reflecting both their extensive online presence and frequent sharing of personal data. Older adults (60–79) continue to fall prey to online shopping scams, while the oldest groups (80–100) are more likely to encounter door-to-door sales and bogus tradesmen, suggesting susceptibility to in-person persuasion. Even rare cases, such as banking fraud among centenarians (100+), point to opportunistic targeting of those who may rely on others for financial management.
Urban Hotspots: Where Fraud Thrives in the UK
Fraud and cybercrime are highly concentrated in urban centres, due to the influence of population density, wealth, and digital activity on criminal opportunity. Metropolitan Police (covering all the area of Greater London) recorded 8,900 online shopping and auction scams and 7,700 social media and email hacking incidents, far surpassing any other force and reflecting how population density, wealth, and digital connectivity create fertile ground for criminals.
Greater Manchester Police (Manchester and adjacent towns) logged 2,400 online shopping scams, while West Yorkshire Police (Leeds, Bradford, and surrounding areas) reported 1,800, demonstrating that northern urban hubs are also significant targets. The number reported by the Merseyside Police is also notable – 1,100, though surpassed by hacking and social media scams at 1,200. Avon & Somerset Police (Bristol, Bath, and surrounding towns) recorded 1,500 online shopping frauds, pointing to the vulnerability of smaller yet commercially active urban centres.
Some of the most surprising patterns appear when less common crimes break into the top three. In Northamptonshire, retail fraud leads with 824 reports, a sharp departure from the national trend dominated by online shopping schemes, hinting at localised commercial vulnerabilities. Meanwhile, Devon & Cornwall presents an alternative reality: dating scams account for 492 reports and are among the most prominent crimes in the region, revealing that emotionally manipulative schemes can flourish even outside major metropolitan centres.
Losses by Crime Category
Data Source: ArcGIS Online, NFIB Fraud and Cyber Crime Dashboard
When Prevalence Doesn’t Equal Loss: Fraud by Category
When looking at fraud by category rather than specific crime types, we see that Consumer Fraud leads in report numbers with 134,775 cases, yet Investment Fraud, with just 35,116 cases, racks up the highest losses at £1.3 billion. Banking Fraud, with 33,164 reports, follows closely in financial impact at £661.2 million, while Advanced Fee Fraud caused £114.9 million in losses from 50,901 reports.
Corporate Fraud and Public Sector Fraud, though far fewer in volume, still account for £166.8 million and £123 million in losses, respectively, showing the wide spectrum of economic consequences across the UK’s fraud landscape. Cyber-Dependent Crimes, despite nearly 70,000 incidents, account for only £8.3 million in losses, revealing the gap between prevalence and economic impact.
Methodology
Using the NFIB Fraud and Cyber Crime Dashboard on ArcGIS Online by Action Fraud, the team at RationalFX focused on the UK’s most prevalent crimes between October 2024 and October 2025. Action Fraud is the UK’s national reporting centre for fraud and cybercrime in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland, run by the City of London Police. Our analysis captured the number of reports, estimated financial losses, victim demographics, reporting channels, and the distribution of offences across all 48 police forces. This approach offers a detailed snapshot of how and where the hottest frauds and cybercrimes are impacting communities nationwide.