Unsuspecting Brits lose £4 billion to fraudsters in 2022

The report* analyses police figures to reveal where in the UK has seen the biggest rise in fraud and cyber crime and which are the most common types. It emerges that criminals stole more money per intrusion last year as reported crimes decreased by 21%, yet the overall monetary loss increased by 67%.

Cyber crime has been dominating the headlines over the past two years, with fraudsters becoming more sophisticated in their attacks. In some instances fraudsters are stealing hundreds of thousands of pounds from just a single intrusion.

Quarterly fraud and cyber crime figures

There were 90,490 crimes reported between January and March last year, duly realising losses totalling £610.3 million. In the second quarter of the year, the number of reported crimes was slightly lower (at 88,199), but reported losses reached £1.1 billion. That’s an increase of £490 million quarter to quarter.

In the third quarter of 2022, the number of cases dropped again, but total losses rose significantly. 87,048 recorded cases of fraud and cyber crime in the UK resulted in £1.6 billion in losses, averaging out at over £18,000 per case.

The final quarter witnessed the lowest number of cases (down nearly 4,000 from Q3), but still resulted in more than £917 million worth of losses.

Common cases

What were the most common cases of fraud and cyber crime in the UK in 2022?

Banking fraud came out on top for Q4 as the most financially damaging category of fraud, with total losses from October to December adding up to £289.3 million. That’s down significantly from Q3, but represents an increase of 164% on Q2 figures. The average loss per victim stood at £36,000.

Banking fraud is the use of potentially illegal means to obtain money, assets or other property owned or held by a financial institution or attempts to obtain funds from depositors by fraudulently posing as a bank or other financial institution.

Following closely behind in Q4 2022 was investment fraud. This totalled £251.1 million in losses, representing a 65% increase on Q3 figures.

Investment fraud refers to a range of deceptive practices where fraudsters induce individuals into making purchases based on false or misleading information.

In terms of specific fraud areas, online shopping remains the single biggest source of fraudulent activity in terms of the number of cases, accounting for nearly one-in-five of all fraud reports. Last year, there were 67,300 reported online shopping fraud cases and losses equalling £103 million. £63.9 million of those losses occurred in Q4 alone.

Most affected groups

In Q4 2022, those aged between 30 and 39 were targeted the most by attempts at fraud and cyber crime. This differs from 2021 where those aged 20-29 were the foremost target for the cyber criminals. Individuals aged younger than 60 were the most common victims of online shopping and auctions fraud.

Older age groups more commonly experienced crimes in the categories of computer software fraud, advance fee fraud and door-to-door sales fraud.

For its part, computer software fraud involves criminals posing as legitimate software companies (eg Microsoft). They will call to inform an individual that there’s a problem with their computer in order to gain access to private information and attempt to commit fraud.

Advance fee fraud is when fraudsters target victims to make advance or upfront payments for goods, services and/or financial gains that do not materialise.

Geography of crime

The report also looks into police force figures to understand which parts of the UK have experienced a significant change in crime figures.

In Q3, Police Scotland (which covers the whole of Scotland) witnessed a dramatic rise in crime of more than 138%, with over 4,000 cases reported at a total value of nearly £14 million, although the number dropped by 15% in Q4.

Forces that witnessed the bigger increases in Q4 included ​​Northamptonshire (14%) and Gloucestershire (11%).

Scotland wasn’t the only policing jurisdiction that saw a drop in fraud in Q4. In fact, 18 of the 45 mainland police forces have posted a decrease of more than 5% from Q3, including the City of London (31%), North Wales 13%) and Warwickshire (11%).

James Andrews, senior personal finance expert at Money.co.uk, explained: “Cyber crime cost Brits more than £4 billion last year, with losses rising yet again. This is a stark reminder for us all to protect our data online and be more vigilant when making purchases in the digital domain.”

Andrews continued: “Using a credit card to pay for purchases affords individuals extra protection when shopping online. If an individual pays for even part of an item costing between £100 and £30,000 using their credit card, they will receive extra protection from their card provider under Section 75 of the Consumer Credit Act. This allows them to claim a refund from the credit card provider if the selling merchant cannot be contacted or otherwise denies any wrongdoing.”

In addition, Andrews asserted: “Making sure you have up-to-date anti-virus software on your computer, phone and tablet can also assist when it comes to protection against cyber attack. Finally, as a rule of thumb, banks and other official bodies will never request details such as credit card numbers or other personal information over the phone or via e-mail.”

Methods of protection

It’s easy to miss even the smallest of details when shopping online, but simply checking a site URL can save buyers from scams. Fake or spam sites attempt to look as convincing as possible in order to convey the impression that they’re used on a frequent basis. Such methods include replacing a letter with a close looking one or missing out a letter that may be hard to spot.

Online shoppers should also watch out for websites that are represented through ‘.net’ or ‘.org’. These are not usually used for online shopping. The ‘.com’ or ‘.co.uk’ variants are much more common.

While there are often great opportunities for discounts online, some product descriptions can be misleading or very different from what’s advertised. If purchasing from a website as opposed to a third party site, it’s best to browse and discover if the site is genuine. Usually, websites with counterfeit products will look less professional and feature poor quality/unoriginal photographs.

In addition, pay attention to how the site is written. If there are lots of spelling or grammatical errors, it’s likely that the site has been put together in a hurry by someone looking to make a quick buck.

To protect wireless networks from hackers, it’s best to encrypt them and change the default passwords on a regular basis. The browser, malware software and operating system should be kept up-to-date. Automatic updates can be turned on such that there’s always a benefit to be realised from the latest protections.

Most legitimate online retailers should allow payment by debit or credit card. It might also be possible to use a reliable online method like PayPal. PayPal can be a good option as scammers will not be able to access bank details. It’s never advisable to pay by bank transfer when spending online, and particularly so where bitcoin or other forms of cryptocurrency wallets are in use. Aways check out the returns policy as well.

Website details

A quick and simple way in which to check that you’re browsing on a safe site is to look next to the URL. Make sure you are using an https:// or secure server Internet connection. If the website has a padlock next to it, the website is usually secure. However, there are occasions where spammers buy a padlock for their site. Be sure to check out other elements of the website as well.

If you’ve paid for your online purchases using a debit card and then encounter problems, you might also be able to obtain help from your current account provider. You can do this by making a Chargeback claim. Policies such as the chargeback scheme mean that you are covered if a purchase is in bad condition when it arrives or doesn’t arrive at all.

*Money.co.uk analysed fraud and cyber criminality reported to Action Fraud. Data was taken from the interactive dashboard on 6 January 2023 (https://colp.maps.arcgis.com/apps/dashboards/0334150e430449cf8ac917e347897d46) and filtered according to the dates specified within the report