Scammers have stolen £11.4 billion from UK citizens over the last 12 months. According to the Global Anti-Scam Alliance’s (GASA) latest report, The State of Scams in the UK, conducted in association with the UK’s leading fraud prevention service, Cifas, this represents an increase of £4 billion over the previous year.
With the Black Friday sales bonanza looming on both sides of the Atlantic, the findings come as a timely warning to online shoppers. GASA and Cifas anticipate a further spike in scam attempts this week and re-urging consumers to remain vigilant. The warning comes as 1 in 7 (15 percent) consumers surveyed said they lost cash to criminals in 2024, an increase from 10 percent in 2023. The average loss per victim was £1,400, and only 18 percent of victims recovered all their money.
A staggering 71 percent of victims did not report the crime. According to Cifas, the most likely explanation is that they were ashamed to do so, blaming themselves or lacking the confidence that their complaint would be dealt with effectively. Three out of five respondents said that their trust online had declined because of scams. Over half the victims also reported that they experienced a strong emotional response to having been cheated by the scammers.
However, almost three-quarters, 71 percent, of respondents say that they can confidently recognize if an offer looks too good to be true. But 61 percent of respondents reported encountering scams at least once a month, mainly through rogue delivery text/SMS messages, and shopping and investment scams via online platforms such as Gmail, WhatsApp, and Facebook.
Lack of consumer confidence on the rise
If the predictions are correct, the decline in consumer confidence when it comes to making purchases online is likely to increase sharply in the wake of the upcoming Black Friday sales in the US and the UK. This trend is further exacerbated by the increasing ingenuity of the scammers that is well ahead of consumers’ abilities to spot potential fraudsters. For example, cybercriminals now offer scammers off-the-shelf kits enabling them to clone the websites of major brands such as Microsoft or British Airways. These dummy websites are entirely convincing to anyone but trained cyber professionals. Consumers are targeted via email or smartphone messaging and told to check out “unbeatable bargains”. Once they enter their bank account details, the seasonal scammers can then drain their bank accounts.
Cifas CEO Mike Haley said: ‘These figures are a stark reminder as to the scale and breadth of scams impacting UK consumers. Not only do victims suffer financially, but they often – wrongly – feel shame and blame themselves.”
