The total number of reported incidents reaches 487,035
UK lost over £2B in fraud and cyber-crime cases during 2021. Source: shutterstock.com
According to Payback Ltd, UK residents and businesses have seen financial losses of £2.5 billion from fraud and cyber-crime over the course of the past year.
It was found that the UK has reported an average of 40,586 cases of fraud and cyber-crime per month, with an average financial loss of £5,700 per case.
The height of cyber-crime activity appeared during the earlier months of the year. In February, the UK reported 47,800 cases equating to £267.6 million in financial loss, while in March more than 48,500 cases amounted to losses of £219.3 million.
Among the top 5 crime codes of reported cases in 2021, fraudulent activity using online shopping and auctions amounts to 100,168 reported cases in total that amount to a value of £77.1 million in financial loss.
The overall umbrella of “consumer fraud” includes other criminal activity such as dating scams and bogus tradesmen, and accounts for £437.2 million of the country’s losses this year.
Overall, fraud and cyber-crime cases relating to individual British residents account for 87% of the country’s total report volume. This translates to £1.8 billion of financial loss incurred over a reported 421,473 cases. Those aged 20-29 reported the most instances of criminal activity, with 82.2K reports made across the course of the year – followed closely by those aged 30-39, who clocked in 80.9K reports.
There have been 62,976 reports made by British businesses throughout 2021, equating to a total reported financial loss of £736.3M.
We’ve reported that Lloyds Bank revealed study of UK business leaders’ views on the next 20 years.
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