{"slug": "fraud-losses-surge-as-scammers-use-ai-to-manipulate-victims", "title": "Fraud losses surge as scammers use AI to manipulate victims", "summary": "Fraud losses in the UK surged by nearly a fifth to £576.4 million in 2025 as criminals increasingly use artificial intelligence to manipulate victims, according to UK Finance. AI has lowered the barrier for scammers to create sophisticated communications, impersonate celebrities or family members, and target victims at scale. Total payment fraud losses reached £1.2 billion, with banks reimbursing only 61% of authorized push payment victims.", "body_md": "[If you click links to other sites on this page, we will earn a commission](https://www.cityam.com/about-city-ams-betting-and-affiliate-section/).# Fraud losses surge as scammers use AI to manipulate victims\n\nFraud losses from people being tricked into transferring money to scammers surged by nearly a fifth last year, as criminals turn to AI to manipulate victims.\n\nMore than half a billion was stolen in 2025 after artificial intelligence created a “lower barrier for entry” for criminals, according to UK Finance.\n\nCriminals managed to trick victims as AI has made it easier for communications to appear more sophisticated, send messages at scale and mimic celebrities or people’s friends and family members to get them to hand over their cash.\n\nTwo-thirds of APP cases originated online, [causing](https://www.cityam.com/city-calls-on-tech-firms-to-tackle-britains-fraud-epidemic/) over 30 per cent of losses, reflecting scammers using AI to swindle victims.\n\n## APP fraud losses rise\n\nIn some cases, authorised push payments (APP) scam [victims](https://www.cityam.com/londoners-most-at-risk-of-online-fraud-report-finds/) lost their money and were unable to get it back, with banks and providers only reimbursing 61 per cent of total victims, amounting to £354.3m.\n\nThe rise in APP fraud losses reported reflects the rapid scale and advancement of scams in which victims transfer money for goods or services that never materialise.\n\nThis caused APP losses to shoot up sharply to £576.4m, a 19 per cent annual increase, marking the highest total losses since 2021, when £583.2m was stolen.\n\nMeanwhile, £500.8m in personal losses and £57.6m in business losses in APP scams were also recorded.\n\nUK Finance also uncovered an uptick in cases being recorded, a seven per cent annual increase to 248,070.\n\nRuth Ray, managing director, economic crime at UK Finance: “We certainly are shocked, but we are not surprised.\n\n“We are well aware that, particularly with the advent of AI, it lowers the barrier to entry for criminals to make their scams more sophisticated and make more of us vulnerable to and susceptible to clicking on links and content.\n\nIn October 2024, mandatory APP fraud reimbursement rules came into force.\n\nThe rules mean banks must reimburse APP fraud victims, unless the customer has been grossly negligent.\n\nThe protections apply when a transfer is made to and from a UK bank account and a reimbursement limit of £85,000 has been applied under the rules, although banks can choose to go further than this and repay higher amounts.\n\nUK Finance pointed to figures from the Payment Systems Regulator (PSR), indicating that 88 per cent of “in scope” APP fraud was reimbursed to victims in the first year of their new rules being in operation.\n\n# Other losses\n\nElsewhere, investment fraud accounted for the highest proportion of losses, rising by 40 per cent to £221.5m.\n\nRomance fraud also increased by 23 per cent to £39.2m, as scammers are able to manipulate victims “over months and even years”.\n\nHowever impersonation fraud losses tumbled 12 per cent.\n\nIn total, criminals stole £1.2bn through payment fraud in 2025, with Ray arguing the high amount of losses emphasises that other players are “not tackling the underlying problem effectively enough”.\n\nRay said: “Fraud operates on an industrial scale, harming people, businesses and the UK economy, typically funding serious and organised crime in the UK and globally.\n\n“The financial sector invests huge amounts in protecting customers, but we cannot be the only line of defence.\n\n“Given most APP fraud still starts via online tech platforms or via telecoms, we urgently need stronger, enforceable responsibilities to be placed on these sectors.”", "url": "https://wpnews.pro/news/fraud-losses-surge-as-scammers-use-ai-to-manipulate-victims", "canonical_source": "https://www.cityam.com/fraud-losses-surge-as-scammers-use-ai-to-manipulate-victims/", "published_at": "2026-06-14 23:01:00+00:00", "updated_at": "2026-06-14 23:16:19.073398+00:00", "lang": "en", "topics": ["ai-safety", "ai-policy", "artificial-intelligence"], "entities": ["UK Finance", "Payment Systems Regulator", "Ruth Ray"], "alternates": {"html": "https://wpnews.pro/news/fraud-losses-surge-as-scammers-use-ai-to-manipulate-victims", "markdown": "https://wpnews.pro/news/fraud-losses-surge-as-scammers-use-ai-to-manipulate-victims.md", "text": "https://wpnews.pro/news/fraud-losses-surge-as-scammers-use-ai-to-manipulate-victims.txt", "jsonld": "https://wpnews.pro/news/fraud-losses-surge-as-scammers-use-ai-to-manipulate-victims.jsonld"}}