The National Fraud Authority (NFA) – which runs Action Fraud - has published its second Annual Fraud Indicator. The 2011 report estimates that fraud is costing the UK over £38 billion a year.
Breaking down fraud loss by sector, the Annual Fraud Indicator found that £21 billion is lost by the public sector, £12 billion is lost by the private sector, £4 billion is lost by individuals and £1.3 billion is lost by the charity sector.
Individuals losing millions to fraud
Individual citizens’ losses equated to 10% of the overall figure, which covers loss from mass-marketing fraud such as share-sale fraud, lottery and advanced fee frauds as well as newer frauds such as online ticketing and rental fraud.
Data from Action Fraud fed into the Annual Fraud Indicator 2011. Action Fraud saw more than 70,000 contacts made by the public and 10,000 crimes reported, totalling £93 million lost by individuals to fraudsters over the past 12 months.
The NFA and law enforcement are working together to build increased capacity for disruption of criminal attacks against individuals, as well as better intelligence sharing and analytics to support enforcement action. Cross-government and industry work also continues to increase public awareness of fraud and how to protect against it.
Dr Bernard Herdan, Chief Executive of the NFA, said: “Victims of fraud are found in all sections of society. Whether it is the public, private and charity sectors or as individual citizens, it is vital we join together to take action to stem the rising tide of fraud.”
Read more about the National Fraud Authority’s Annual Fraud Indicator 2011 on the National Fraud Authority’s website.
Please note: Action Fraud is not responsible for the content on external websites.
To report a fraud, call Action Fraud on 0300 123 2040 or use our online fraud reporting tool.
