You asked
What is the estimated level of fraud against consumers each year? (If possible with statistics dating back for the past 20 years)
How many reported fraud cases are there each year? (If possible with statistics dating back for the past 20 years)
What is the estimated overall cost of fraud to the UK economy? (If possible with statistics dating back for the past 20 years)
What is the estimated level of fraud cases which are solved (via % or total case number) (If possible with statistics dating back for the past 20 years)
What is the estimated average amount of loss per victim of fraud? (If possible with statistics dating back for the past 20 years)
How much money is returned to the consumers which are victims of the fraud each year?
What is the estimated level/number of fraud cases against consumers that are not reported?
What is the estimated level of fraud against people over 65? Total volume in £ value, and in number of estimated fraud cases?
What age groups or demographics are the most defrauded? In total monetary amount and number of total fraudulent cases?
Of those affected by fraud, how often does the victim know the perpetrator? If possible, it would great to have this broken down into groups such as - child, parent, relative, financial fiduciary, friend/neighbor, stranger.
What is the estimated level of fraud against those living with disabilities? Total volume in £ value, and number of estimated fraud cases?
We said
Thank you for your request relating to fraud.
The Crime Survey for England and Wales (CSEW) estimated that there were 3,863,000 fraud offences against adults in England and Wales in the year ending June 2019. The CSEW provides the best measure of fraud offences directly experienced by individuals in England and Wales. CSEW estimates cover a broad range of fraud offences, including attempts, involving a loss and incidents not reported to the authorities. Questions on fraud were introduced into the CSEW in October 2015, and data relating to fraud goes back to the year ending March 2017. These data can also be found in Appendix Table A1.
The number of reported fraud offences incorporates fraud offences collated by the National Fraud Intelligence Bureau (NFIB) from three reporting bodies: Action Fraud, Cifas and UK Finance. In the year ending June 2019, 740,845 offences of fraud were reported.
The number of recorded fraud offences are not comparable before the year ending March 2012 as, prior to this date, fraud offences were only recorded by the police. However, you can find data relating to reported cases of fraud back to the year ending March 2003 in Appendix Table A4.
We do not hold statistics on the average amount of loss per victim of fraud. However, Table E2 within the Additional Tables on Fraud and Cybercrime for the year ending March 2018 provide some information on the financial loss experienced by victims of fraud. In the year ending March 2018, the CSEW estimated that 31.1% of fraud victims experienced no financial loss. These are the latest data available.
We do not hold statistics relating to how much money is returned to consumers who are victims of fraud. However, Table F5 provides some information from the CSEW about whether consumers were partially or fully reimbursed, or not reimbursed at all, if they experienced fraud. In the year ending June 2019, an estimated 1,948,000 adults were fully reimbursed when they experienced fraud and 659,000 received no or partial reimbursement.
The CSEW estimates that 15% of fraud offences were reported to the police in the year ending March 2019. These data can be found in Table D10. The reasons for not reporting incidents of fraud to the police or Action Fraud can be found in Table D12.
Information on the demographics of victims of fraud from the CSEW can be found in Tables E3 and E4 within the Additional Tables on Fraud and Cybercrime for the year ending March 2018. These are the latest data available. This includes the proportion of adults who were victims of fraud by age, disability, as well as other personal and household characteristics. Caution must be taken when interpreting between groups as differences between categories may not be statistically significant. We do not hold statistics relating to the volume of money victims lost, by demographic characteristics.
In response to the other aspects of your query, we do not hold data on:
- the cost of fraud to the UK economy
- how many fraud cases are solved
- victim's relationship to the perpetrator of fraud
If you have any crime-related queries in future, you can email CrimeStatistics@ons.gov.uk and we will endeavour to help.