A new survey has revealed the impact of fraud in the UK, with the country losing an estimated £1.2 billion to the practice in 2022.

According to new data from banking and finance industry group UK Finance, Brits suffered three million scams in 2022 with losses of over £2,300 every minute.

The body’s Annual Fraud Report highlighted the prevalence of online scams, with 78 per cent of cases occurring over the internet.

However while fraud poses a major threat to Brits, the banking and finance industry prevented a further £1.2 billion of unauthorised fraud, with the total number of cases down by four per cent and the value of losses down eight per cent compared to 2021.

Commenting on the report’s findings, David Postings, chief executive at UK Finance, said: “The banking and finance sector is at the forefront of efforts to tackle this criminal activity. The sector spends billions on detection and prevention and also refunds people who have fallen victim, even if the fraud originated outside the banking system.”

The report has been published following the introduction of the Failure To Prevent Fraud Offence by the Home Office. This is a new failure to prevent fraud offence to hold organisations to account if they profit from fraud committed by their employees

Postings continued: “Our data also makes clear just how much fraud emanates from online platforms and through telecommunications. The Government’s new fraud strategy rightly says we need to focus on stopping it at source and that these other sectors need to do far more to tackle the problem they are facilitating.”

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