Criminals used AI to advertise bogus schemes, pocketing over £200 million in investment scams
British consumers and businesses handed over nearly £1.3 billion to fraudsters in 2025, a 4% increase on the previous year, according to the trade body UK Finance. The total marks the second consecutive year of growth in payment fraud losses, driven largely by a sharp rise in authorised push payment (APP) scams, where victims are tricked into authorising payments themselves.
APP fraud losses alone surged 19% to £576.4 million, the highest figure since 2021. Within that category, investment fraud emerged as the single largest type, accounting for just under half of all APP losses. Criminals stole £221.5 million through investment scams – a 40% jump on 2024 – as they exploited online platforms to lure people with promises of quick returns. The average loss per investment scam stood at £18,500 last year, reflecting a trend toward higher-value targets. Cryptocurrency featured as a dominant hook, referenced in 66% of all UK investment fraud reports.
Two-thirds of all APP fraud cases, including investment scams, originated online, UK Finance found. A further 17% of cases came through telecommunication networks, often involving higher-value impersonation schemes. Purchase scams – where victims pay in advance for goods that never arrive – accounted for 71% of APP fraud cases, with losses rising 20% to £118.1 million. Romance fraud losses increased 22% to £39.2 million.
Meanwhile, unauthorised fraud – where a third party executes a transaction without the account holder’s consent – fell 5% by value to £703.4 million, but the number of reported cases jumped 11% to 3.81 million. Remote purchase card fraud, a key driver of unauthorised losses, saw a 13% rise in cases to 3.2 million, with losses reaching £423.5 million.
AI revolutionises the criminal playbook
The sharp rise in investment fraud has been turbocharged by artificial intelligence, which is radically lowering the barrier to entry for criminals. Nearly 84% of fraud management and financial crime prevention experts surveyed by the cybersecurity firm BioCatch said AI has increased the sophistication of scam schemes, with deepfakes becoming increasingly difficult to spot.
“Agentic AI is making fraud faster, more scalable, and harder to detect,” said Jonathan Frost, director of global advisory for EMEA at BioCatch. “Criminals will inevitably use AI, potentially leading to exponential growth in fraud.”
Scammers are now using AI-generated images and videos to impersonate high-profile figures in finance, lending a veneer of credibility to their pitches. Fraudsters have been caught using the likenesses of investor Steven Bartlett, Bank of England governor Andrew Bailey, and BlackRock chief executive Larry Fink. Deepfake clips of Nigel Farage confronting Andrew Bailey have also circulated online, prompting the Bank of England to warn the public to be vigilant. The personal finance expert Martin Lewis has been a frequent target of AI-generated adverts promoting bogus “Quantum AI” investment schemes.
Beyond impersonation, AI enables criminals to create hyper-realistic voice clones of executives. A significant number of finance professionals – 87% – admitted they would authorise a payment if they received a call they believed was from their CEO or CFO, highlighting the vulnerability to deepfake audio scams. AI is also used in “pump-and-dump” schemes, where bots generate fake social media hype around low-priced stocks or crypto assets to drive up prices before the criminals sell. Fake AI trading bots promising guaranteed profits are likewise proliferating.
UK Finance’s managing director of economic crime, Ruth Ray, said: “Fraud operates on an industrial scale, harming people, businesses and the UK economy, typically funding serious and organised crime in the UK and globally. The financial sector invests huge amounts in protecting customers, but we cannot be the only line of defence. Almost £1.3 billion was stolen again last year and it is clear we are not tackling the underlying problem effectively enough.” Ray called for online tech platforms to face “stronger, enforceable responsibilities” to urgently stop criminals profiting from fraud.
How to protect yourself
With fraud continuing to rise, several measures can help reduce the risk. Never share personal information – including name, address, bank details, email, or phone number – with any organisation before verifying it is legitimate. Ensure personal devices have up-to-date antivirus software to block malware. Be alert to phishing attempts: emails, texts or calls that use urgent language, contain grammatical errors, or come from suspicious addresses or numbers. Common signs of a phishing message include pressure to act quickly and requests for passwords or personal details.
If you receive a suspicious call, you can dial 159 – a number that cannot be spoofed – which will connect you directly to your bank’s fraud department. If you believe you have been a victim of fraud, contact your bank immediately and report the crime to Action Fraud. New mandatory reimbursement rules, which came into effect in October 2024, require banks to refund APP fraud victims unless they have been grossly negligent. In the first year, 88% of in-scope claims were reimbursed. However, the government’s UK Fraud Strategy 2026–2029, launched in March 2026, commits more than £250 million over three years to disrupt criminal networks, expand public awareness campaigns such as ‘Stop! Think Fraud’, and introduce a Fraud Victims Charter by mid-2027. Obligations under the Online Safety Act 2023, which will make certain tech services responsible for preventing fraudulent adverts, are expected to come into force in 2027.
