The Office of National Statistics (ONS) has reported there were approximately 3.6 million consumer and retail fraud incidents in 2024, a 19% rise for the same period in 2023.
Of these incidents, roughly 2.7 million involved a loss of money or property, where 1.9 million of those were fully reimbursed.
The incidents rose from 3.3 million in 2023. The ONS states this does not represent a statistically significant change, however, the rate of consumer and retail fraud was notable.
Data is gathered from police records and Crime Survey for England and Wales (CSEW), and are taken as year end June 2024.
The ONS reported that Police saw a slightly different statistics, seeing an 11% increase in the same period. They report this increase is influenced by an increase in the number of offenses reported by UK Finance, which saw a 22% increase, due in part to the trade association working with member firms to improve the volume of actionable intelligence shared with the National Fraud Intelligence Bureau.
Action Fraud also reported a 7% increase to the ONS in the same period, however, Cifas saw a 1% decrease.
This comes after UK Finance reported a decline in authorised push payment fraud in the first half of 2024, but a 26% increase in card not present cases.