Investment scams in the UK exploded last year, with fraudsters siphoning off more than £220m through increasingly sophisticated schemes — many targeting crypto investors, UK Finance’s annual fraud report warns.
Key findings
- UK banks logged almost 15,000 investment scams in 2025.
- Victims lost about £221.5m to scams that convinced them to move funds into fake investments or fictitious funds — a 40% jump from the prior year.
- Overall fraud losses reached £1.28bn in 2025 (up 4%), with more than 4 million incidents recorded.
- UK Finance estimates that the pace of crime equates to eight people being scammed out of a combined £2,500 every minute.
- Authorised push payment (APP) frauds — where people are tricked into transferring money to criminals’ accounts — rose by almost a fifth. The mandatory APP reimbursement scheme covered 88% of losses.
- Purchase scams and romance fraud also increased.
Why crypto and other investments are prime targets
Criminals are pitching high-return opportunities across a wide range of supposed assets — from gold, property and carbon credits to wine and cryptocurrencies. These schemes are attractive because they can promise large gains and often rely on convincing-looking websites, slick communications and fabricated fund documentation.
AI: the force multiplier
UK Finance highlights advances in artificial intelligence as a major reason for the surge. AI tools let scammers create professional-looking sites, automate mass outreach, mimic voices and generate deepfake videos — all at scale. The Bank of England recently warned the public after AI-generated videos surfaced showing a fake confrontation between Reform leader Nigel Farage and the Bank’s governor, Andrew Bailey.
Ruth Ray, UK Finance’s managing director for economic crime, told reporters: “AI is making that easier because it allows you to make all of your communications more sophisticated. It allows you to spin up websites quickly and easily to make your business look legitimate when it may be otherwise. It allows you to send out messages at scale and contact users by telephone at scale, and also it can allow you to mimic voices of celebrities or even people’s friends and family to fool people into thinking that they are dealing with a legitimate entity.”
Calls for platform accountability
The report reiterates calls for stronger obligations on tech platforms and telecoms, where many scams begin. UK Finance urges enforceable duties to verify online sellers and increase tech companies’ investment in fraud prevention, arguing that platforms have the capacity to do more but aren’t committing sufficient resources. Meta and TikTok were contacted for comment.
What it means for crypto users
For crypto communities and investors, the trend is a reminder that digital-asset markets remain fertile ground for fraudsters using AI to scale deception. The combination of complex products, decentralised channels and social engineering makes it essential to verify counterparties, ignore unsolicited investment pitches, and use regulated intermediaries where possible.
Bottom line: scams are growing faster and smarter. Regulators, tech platforms and users all face pressure to adapt — or risk letting fraudsters profit from increasingly realistic, AI-enhanced ruses.
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