Over £600m stolen by fraudsters in first half of 2025
Fraudsters stole £629.3m in the first half of 2025, according to UK Finance’s latest Half Year Fraud Report – a 3% rise on the same period last year. The number of confirmed cases through payment fraud and scams surged by 17% to more than 2.09 million, underscoring how fraud are growing in both scale and sophistication.
Banks successfully blocked £870m of unauthorised fraud – 20% more than in H1 2024, equivalent to 70p in every £1 attempted – yet the report reveals that most scams originate outside the banking system, with 66% starting online and 17% through telecommunications networks.
Authorised Push Payment (APP) fraud continues to be a major concern, rising 12% to £257.5m in losses. The biggest jump came from investment scams, which soared 55% year-on-year. Purchase scams remained the most common, accounting for 72% of all APP fraud cases.
Ben Donaldson, managing director of economic crime at UK Finance, said: “Fraud continues to be a major threat to our society and economy. Despite investment by the industry, the majority of fraud originates online and over the phone, where manipulation begins long before any payment is made. The government must prioritise prevention and hold the social media and telecommunications industries to account in its new Fraud Strategy.”
While UK Finance’s data highlights the impact on consumers, businesses are facing a parallel threat. Research from Basware, a global leader invoice lifecycle management, reveals that 62% of organisations now cite Generative AI as a key driver behind the surge in fraud attempts. Yet nine in ten businesses admit they still lack the technology, skills, and dedicated resources needed to prevent financial fraud.
Perttu Nihti, chief product and technology officer at Basware, warns that the threat is being further amplified by generative AI… “The urgency for businesses to implement AI-driven fraud prevention has never been greater. Generative AI is accelerating invoice fraud at an alarming pace, 62% of businesses now cite it as a key driver behind the surge in fraud attempts. Yet 90% still lack the technology, skills and dedicated resources to prevent it.”
Nihti added that manual financial processes are leaving organisations vulnerable: “Without automation, companies struggle to match invoices or detect duplicates – gaps that contributed to $485bn in global fraud losses last year according to Nasdaq. AI-powered automation transforms finance teams by enabling real-time data analysis and faster, more accurate fraud detection.”
Basware’s AP Protect solution leverages AI, machine learning, and over 800 algorithms to proactively identify invoice anomalies before they impact the bottom line. According to the company’s AI to ROI Report, 95% of businesses using AI have achieved faster fraud detection and fewer errors.
With fraud losses climbing, AI adoption and cross-industry collaboration have become urgent priorities. Nihti concluded:
“AI adoption is no longer a future ambition. It’s a necessity to protect cash flow, mitigate risk, and future-proof operations against today’s sophisticated financial threats.”