Investment fraud in UK soared to more than £220m lost last year, trade body says

Investment fraud in the UK surged past £220m in losses last year, driven by criminals using artificial intelligence to scale up sophisticated scams, according to an industry report. UK banks logged almost 15,000 such cases in 2025, a 40% rise in losses from the prior year. The data, published by the banking trade body UK Finance, shows approximately £221.5m was stolen after victims were persuaded to transfer money into fake investments or fictitious funds [1]. The schemes often promise high returns on assets ranging from gold, property, and carbon credits to cryptocurrencies and wine. Last week the Bank of England issued a public warning after deepfake videos depicting Reform leader Nigel Farage fighting the Bank’s governor, Andrew Bailey, circulated online [1]. Ruth Ray, UK Finance’s managing director for economic crime, said AI is making fraud easier because “it allows you to make all of your communications more sophisticated” and to “spin up websites quickly and easily to make your business look legitimate when it may be otherwise” [1]. She added that the technology can “mimic voices of celebrities or even people’s friends and family to fool people into thinking that they are dealing with a legitimate entity” [1]. The broader fraud landscape also worsened. A total of £1.28bn was stolen across more than 4m cases last year, a 4% increase [1]. Authorised push payment (APP) frauds, where individuals are tricked into sending money to a criminal-controlled account, rose by almost a fifth. Romance fraud and purchase scams also increased [1]. The mandatory reimbursement scheme for APP fraud covered 88% of losses, the report noted [1]. Ray renewed calls for technology platforms to bear greater responsibility, stating that “most APP fraud still starts via online tech platforms or via telecoms” and urging “stronger, enforceable responsibilities” to stop criminals and tech companies profiting from the crimes [1]. The platforms where many scams originate, such as TikTok, have faced years of scrutiny over content moderation and data practices [4]. TikTok has previously stated that some of its early content moderation policies were intended to reduce divisiveness and were not politically motivated [5]. The platform has also been a vector for viral trends and influencer marketing, which can be exploited to lend a veneer of legitimacy to fraudulent schemes [4]. Meta and TikTok were approached for comment by the Guardian [1].