New figures from UK Finance’s 2026 Fraud Report continue to make alarming reading. More than four million cases of fraud resulting in financial loss were reported in the UK last year, the equivalent of nearly 8 per minute, with almost £1.3 billion of money stolen by scammers in 2025. That represents an 11% increase on the previous year and a 31% rise since 2023, showing no sign of slowing.
The scale and sophistication of the problem is growing rapidly, driven in large part by criminals deploying AI to manipulate victims. Investment scams saw losses soar by 40% in a year to a new record high, purchase scams also hit record levels, and romance fraud. Banks have described fraud as a national security threat, and UK Finance has been explicit that the problem cannot be tackled by the financial sector alone, calling on tech companies to do more to monitor and secure their platforms.
In terms of particular cases of telecoms fraud, the report found that 17% of total fraud cases in 2025 were enabled by telecommunications. Critically, these tend to be higher value cases, such as impersonation scams, and have accounted for 28% of total losses. This is significantly disproportionate to their share of case numbers, especially when compared to online fraud, which makes up 66% of fraud cases, but only 32% of the total values.
The report underlines the need for continued focus from Government and regulators on the role that telecom providers play in enabling or preventing fraud, and reinforces the importance of members taking their obligations in this area seriously.
CCUK is coordinating a series of initiatives to position what telecoms providers need to be able to tackle fraud more effectively, including a CP registry, an effective traceback model, an updated numbering strategy, and enabling data-sharing.