Losses to fraud total almost £3bn a year

Overall, losses rocketed to almost £3bn - with the losses per person in the UK being higher than in other leading western economies, including the US, Canada and Australia. The publication’s investigation also found just one in seven had the frauds reported to the police or Action Fraud. 

Additionally, a vast number of cases went undetected, with leading experts estimating the real annual impact of these losses on the economy to be worth £137bn. As well as this - despite fraud being the most common crime in the country - only two percent of police officers in England and Wales were dedicated to investigating it last year.  

Alongside this, only one in 1,000 fraud reports resulted in a charge in 2021, while more than 40 million adults in the UK - nearly three in four - have been targeted by a scammer this year. Britain also has by far the highest level of credit and debit card fraud in Europe. 

Broken down by age, £977m were stolen by fraudsters from those aged 70 and over in the past three years - with £116m stolen from those aged between 90 and 99 at an average of £6,097 each despite these victims accounting for 19,059 of the 178,772 cases reported in the over 70s group. As for those in their 20s, £337m were stolen at an average of £2,296 each.   

Overall, the total losses caused by fraud were worth £2.4bn in the UK - being worth £36.02 per person. The next highest amount of fraud being seen was in France, losing its population £16.24 per person. 

Because of this, the Daily Mail has launched a campaign that calls for a “major overhaul to the system” starting with the appointment of a fraud minister. It’s also demanding police make tackling fraud a priority and boost the number of specialist investigators. 

In addition to this, tech giants should have to compensate fraud victims caught out by scams on their platforms - and face fines if they fail to crack down on the “swindlers”.