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Crime & safety · Fraud · England and Wales · the year to March 2026

Fraud: how many people are affected, and what do they lose?

Adults in England and Wales suffered an estimated 4.5m frauds in the year to March 2026, about 32% more than when the survey first measured fraud in 2016–17. Computer misuse, measured alongside it, is 55% lower than then. Most fraud is never reported to the police, and police fraud figures are paused while a new reporting system beds in.

Evidence last reviewed 9 October 2026

How many people, and what kind of fraud

How many people are defrauded?

7.8% of adults were victims of fraud in a year, up from 6.0% in 2016–17

Share of adults aged 16+ who were victims of fraud at least once in the 12 months before interview, 2016–17 to 2025–26.

England and Wales · 2016–17 to 2025–26

1996–2026 displayed window · observations only. Shading marks years outside the displayed record.

Per cent of adultsNo observations shownno survey0%5%10%2000201020207.8%
Prevalence counts people, not incidents: about 3.8m adults were defrauded at least once. The chart shows the published annual estimates; changes in incident counts and victim prevalence are different measures. Because the survey asks people directly, this measure does not depend on whether victims reported the fraud to anyone.

England and Wales · 2016–17 to 2025–26 · Accredited official statistics; small differences need significance testing.

Sources, definitions and data — 7.8% of adults were victims of fraud in a year, up from 6.0% in 2016–17
Geography:
England and Wales — adults aged 16+ living in households
Measure:
Per cent of adults (prevalence)
Period:
2016–17 to 2025–26
Status:
Accredited official statistics; small differences need significance testing.
Calculation:
As published (Table A3a).
Compare with:
2016–17, the first comparable year
Not included / breaks:
No estimates for 2020–21 and 2021–22.

Source: ONS, Crime in England and Wales: Appendix tables, year ending March 2026, Table A3a (released 23 July 2026). Chart CRIME-07.

View the data as a table
YearAdults defrauded (%)Victims (m)
2016–176.02.79
2017–186.02.81
2018–196.83.18
2019–206.63.13
2022–236.32.99
2023–245.72.75
2024–257.13.44
2025–267.83.80

What kinds of fraud?

Bank and credit account fraud is 63% of all survey fraud

Crime Survey fraud incidents by type, millions, the year to March 2026.

England and Wales · 2025–26
Million incidents0.00m1.00m2.00m3.00mBank and credit accountConsumer and retailAdvance feeOther0.15m
Bank and credit account fraud includes unauthorised use of cards or account details. The table shows its published count alongside consumer and retail fraud, advance-fee fraud and other fraud. Incident counts do not measure harm: small repeated losses and life-changing losses each count as incidents.

England and Wales · 2025–26 · Accredited official statistics

Sources, definitions and data — Bank and credit account fraud is 63% of all survey fraud
Geography:
England and Wales — adults aged 16+ living in households
Measure:
Million incidents
Period:
2025–26
Status:
Accredited official statistics
Calculation:
As published (Table A1a sub-rows, thousands, shown in millions). Parts may not sum to the total because of rounding.
Compare with:
2024–25 values in the data table
Not included / breaks:
Fraud against businesses and public bodies is not covered. Incidents where the victim lost nothing are included.

Source: ONS, Crime in England and Wales: Appendix tables, year ending March 2026, Table A1a (released 23 July 2026). Chart CRIME-06.

View the data as a table
Type2025–26 (thousands)2024–25 (thousands)
Bank and credit account fraud2,8092,449
Consumer and retail fraud1,1051,091
Advance fee fraud419381
Other fraud151237

Getting the money back is only one part of recovery.

ONS groups survey incidents by what happened to the money. These are counts of incidents, not the number of people or the pounds stolen. They cannot tell us the average loss per victim.

0.848m

incidents · 2025–26

Money not fully recovered

No reimbursement or only part of the loss reimbursed.

2.421m

incidents · 2025–26

Money fully reimbursed

Financial loss repaid; that does not erase distress or time spent resolving the fraud.

1.214m

incidents · 2025–26

No money lost

An incident can count as fraud even when it does not leave a financial loss.

Keep the money measures separate. Initial loss is what leaves the victim; reimbursement is what comes back; unrecovered loss is the remainder, measured at a specified time. The PSR dashboard concerns eligible authorised push-payment scam claims, a narrower population than all survey fraud. Its reimbursement rate must not be applied to the whole survey. PSR dashboard and scope →
ONS appendix Table C1 · 2026-07-23 · rounded estimates →

Illustrative situation · not a real victim or impact estimate

The refund arrives. The worry stays.

Someone gets their money back after account fraud, but spends days changing passwords and checking every message. Another person loses savings that are never recovered. Both are counted as incidents; their financial and emotional consequences can be very different.

Why fraud is so large — and so hard to police

Fraud and other survey crimes have followed different paths. Fraud represents 47% of the headline total. Much of it is committed remotely, through cards, bank transfers, phone calls, messages and online marketplaces, often by groups outside the UK. That is why the government’s Fraud Strategy 2026–2029 puts most weight on banks, telecoms firms and platforms stopping fraud before it reaches people, rather than on arrests.

The cost is large. The Home Office estimates fraud against individuals and businesses in England and Wales cost about £14.4 billion in 2023–24, including losses, emotional harm and the cost of prevention and response. Banks have had to reimburse victims of authorised push payment fraud — where people are tricked into sending money — since October 2024; the strategy reports that 88% (£173m) of in-scope losses were reimbursed in the first year. Reimbursement repays victims; it does not, by itself, reduce fraud.

Few cases reach court. The strategy says fraud prosecutions have fallen 56% since 2015 and that fraud cases take over 626 days to reach charge, against 80 for the average case.

Has policy worked so far?

The previous Fraud Strategy, in May 2023, aimed to cut fraud by 10% on 2019 levels by December 2024. The survey’s closest annual estimate to 2019, the year to March 2020, recorded 3.7m fraud incidents; the latest is 4.5m. The target was not met on this measure — though the survey cannot say what fraud would have been without the strategy.

Computer misuse is falling

Computer misuse — viruses and hacking into personal accounts — is measured alongside fraud but is a separate offence. It has fallen from 1.8m incidents in 2016–17 to 0.8m, about 55% lower. Fraud and computer misuse should not be described together as “rising”.

Why there are no police fraud figures this year

The City of London Police launched Report Fraud, replacing Action Fraud, on 4 December 2025. While it moves over, the Home Office and ONS have suspended police-recorded fraud and computer misuse figures. The survey estimates are unaffected. Recorded fraud was never a good guide to how much fraud there is, because many victims do not report to the police.

Options for prevention and specialist investigation are compared on the crime overview — What would move the needle?

Sources and methods (5)

Method notes

  • Fraud questions were added to the Crime Survey from October 2015, asked of half the sample until 2017; comparable annual estimates start in 2016–17.
  • The survey counts fraud against adults in households, whether or not money was lost and whether or not it was reported. Fraud against businesses and the public sector is not included.
  • The year-to-March-2020 fraud estimate quoted for the 2023 target comparison is from the same stored ONS series (Table A1a).