One in 12 lost money to a financial scam in the past three years

• The interactive investor Great British Retirement Survey 2023 of more than 9,000 savers found one in 12 (8%) of respondents had lost money to a financial scam in the past three years
• Younger people were more likely to be victims, with 15% of respondents aged 40 or under losing money during that period.
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Commenting, Myron Jobson, Senior Personal Finance Analyst, interactive investor, says: “The latest UK Finance figures show that the battle against the scourge of financial scams is hard-fought, with the amount lost through financial scams falling relatively modestly on a year-on-year basis.

“Financial scams are like the multiple-headed Hydra from Greek mythology, where every time one scam is exposed, many more emerge in its wake. Recent history has seen the evolution of cons, notable impersonation and romance scams, which have a significant financial and emotional toll on victims. The internet continues to be rich ground for unscrupulous individuals to convince unsuspecting victims to part with their hard-earned money. Fraudsters are only too willing to exploit any ignorance or naivety.

The interactive investor Great British Retirement Survey 2023 found that 8% of our nationally representative sample had lost money to a financial scam in the past three years. Younger people were more likely to be victims, with 15% of respondents aged 40 or under losing money during that period. This is counter to the traditional image of elderly, vulnerable people being most likely to fall victim and may be a reflection of the younger generation’s greater use of technology.

“The most-cited financial scam was investment fraud (26%), followed by current account fraud (20%) and computer hacking/identity theft (18%).

"The harsh reality is scams have become a begrudging part of everyday life. Any progress made in stemming the tide of financial scams is welcome - and the silver lining is that there has been a significant uptick in the amount returned to victims.

"The hope is the Online Safety Bill will go a long way in stamping out financial fraud, but the onus remains on individuals to avoid falling prey to financial fraud – there is no getting away from it."

Key points

• Criminals stole £580 million through unauthorised and authorised fraud in the first half of 2023, a 2% decrease compared with the same period in 2022, according to UK Finance
• Banks prevented a further £651 million of unauthorised fraud from being stolen through advanced security systems
• 77% of APP fraud started online and another 17% started through telecommunications networks.