On this page you can find the latest fraud and cyber crime statistics, including key trends, performance indicators, reports, referrals and outcomes.
Action Fraud Interactive Dashboard
Key statistics on the fraud and cyber crimes reported to Action Fraud are now available in a configurable, interactive dashboard through clicking this link.
These dashboards have been designed to allow users to quickly identify the most commonly reported fraud and cyber crimes, and filter by police forces in the UK where the reporting victim resides. They also allow users to look in a little more detail at the types of victims reporting, the way they report, and the estimated overall losses based on reporting figures.
Using the filters on the left hand side of the screen, users are able to apply filters to the charts and graphs in the body of the dashboard, including looking at specific reporting periods. The data is updated each month and currently covers a 13 month period so the current month can be compared to the same month last year. Don’t forget to look at the last tab “About the Data” which should answer some key questions on what the data means, and any limitations.
Fraud and Cyber Crime Trends
Please see the below links for an overview of our most recently published fraud and cyber crime trends. This includes reporting volumes, the top three fraud types, losses and geographical spread.
Fraud crime trends 2020 - 21
Cyber crime trends 2020 - 21
Fraud crime trends 2019 - 20
Cyber crime trends 2019 - 20
Reports, referrals and outcomes
We've published reports, referrals and outcomes for fraud and cyber crime broken down by Home Office police forces and other agencies in the UK for 1 April 2019 - 31 March 2020.
Police forces
|
Force / Agency |
Referred Crimes |
Total Outcomes |
Total Judicial Outcomes |
NFA / Non-judicial outcomes |
|
Avon and Somerset |
531 |
654 |
106 |
548 |
|
Bedfordshire |
409 |
618 |
43 |
575 |
|
Cambridgeshire |
273 |
972 |
70 |
902 |
|
Cheshire |
401 |
255 |
65 |
190 |
|
City of London * |
862 |
1,485 |
500 |
985 |
|
Cleveland |
267 |
141 |
19 |
122 |
|
Cumbria |
165 |
768 |
154 |
614 |
|
Derbyshire |
277 |
855 |
127 |
728 |
|
Devon and Cornwall |
694 |
1,136 |
105 |
1,031 |
|
Dorset |
326 |
1,181 |
321 |
860 |
|
Durham |
95 |
259 |
116 |
143 |
|
Dyfed/Powys |
91 |
534 |
59 |
475 |
|
Essex |
1,484 |
1,453 |
156 |
1,297 |
|
Gloucestershire |
154 |
213 |
21 |
192 |
|
Greater Manchester |
1,993 |
443 |
140 |
303 |
|
Gwent |
195 |
437 |
78 |
359 |
|
Hampshire |
599 |
1,089 |
181 |
908 |
|
Hertfordshire |
446 |
1,363 |
210 |
1,153 |
|
Humberside |
404 |
423 |
97 |
326 |
|
Kent |
847 |
1,295 |
145 |
1,150 |
|
Lancashire |
580 |
600 |
59 |
541 |
|
Leicestershire |
1,631 |
431 |
95 |
336 |
|
Lincolnshire |
335 |
1,245 |
169 |
1,076 |
|
Merseyside |
514 |
1,014 |
64 |
950 |
|
Metropolitan |
13,492 |
4,823 |
709 |
4,114 |
|
Norfolk |
234 |
779 |
110 |
669 |
|
North Wales |
285 |
1,193 |
121 |
1,072 |
|
North Yorkshire |
164 |
53 |
6 |
47 |
|
Northamptonshire |
544 |
1,274 |
155 |
1,119 |
|
Northumbria |
378 |
349 |
93 |
256 |
|
Nottinghamshire |
520 |
2,909 |
263 |
2,646 |
|
Police Service of Northern Ireland |
227 |
1,060 |
140 |
920 |
|
South Wales |
317 |
1,687 |
183 |
1,504 |
|
South Yorkshire |
518 |
1,348 |
173 |
1,175 |
|
Staffordshire |
304 |
960 |
137 |
823 |
|
Suffolk |
258 |
536 |
40 |
496 |
|
Surrey |
623 |
2,230 |
132 |
2,098 |
|
Sussex |
755 |
3,406 |
127 |
3,279 |
|
Thames Valley |
1,177 |
1,345 |
234 |
1,111 |
|
Warwickshire |
209 |
570 |
53 |
517 |
|
West Mercia |
408 |
1,319 |
121 |
1,198 |
|
West Midlands |
2,439 |
2,653 |
234 |
2,419 |
|
West Yorkshire |
1,221 |
1,054 |
107 |
947 |
|
Wiltshire |
305 |
543 |
125 |
418 |
|
Police Forces England, Wales & Northern Ireland - Excluding Partner Agencies |
37,951 |
48,955 |
6,363 |
42,592 |
|
Other Forces, Regional and National Units |
Referred Crimes | Total Outcomes | Total Judicial Outcomes | NFA / Non-judicial outcomes |
|
British Transport Police |
5 |
93 |
14 |
79 |
|
Regional OCU's |
2,867 |
|||
|
Guernsey |
3 |
|||
|
Isle of Man |
8 |
|||
|
Jersey |
5 |
|||
|
Police Scotland |
355 |
Partner agencies
|
Partner Agencies |
Referred Crimes | Total Outcomes | Total Judicial Outcomes | NFA / Non Judicial Outcomes |
|
Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) |
1,090 |
|||
|
Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs |
43 |
|||
|
Insolvency Service |
303 |
|||
|
National Crime Agency |
780 |
|||
|
Other |
1,220 |
|||
|
Serious Fraud Office |
44 |
|||
|
Trading Standards |
431 |
|||
|
Total Partner Agencies |
0 |
0 |
0 |
Terms used in the data
- National Fraud Intelligence Bureau (NFIB) is part of the City of London Police. It analyses information and crimes reported to Action Fraud to develop lines of inquiry and then sends out crime packages (disseminations) to police forces and other law enforcement agencies. NFIB also carries out a range of activities to disrupt websites, bank accounts and telephone accounts used to enable fraud and provides crime prevention advice to the public, industry and other partners.
- There are a number of different types of judicial outcome as defined by the Home Office (see Section H).
How we choose which crimes are sent to forces
Several factors are considered when a dissemination is made. This includes whether or not there are viable lines of enquiry and the threat, risk and harm to the victim. Crimes are disseminated to police forces for investigation primarily based on the location of the suspect, where there are viable lines of enquiry to be made and when officers have the best opportunity to detect and deter. However, all reports are stored for further analysis so that if new information is discovered it can be used as part of any future investigation.
Discrepancies in outcomes between forces
Fraud and cyber crime are complex crimes that take time to investigate and, where possible, prosecute. It can also happen from outside the UK, which adds a further degree of complexity in trying to track down offenders.
There is not a direct link between the number of crime disseminations and the number of outcomes returned. Disseminations and disposals often won't occur in the same reporting period due to the length of time required for fraud investigations. It's also possible for the number of outcomes to be greater than disseminations, when disseminations made before April 2019 are returned as outcomes within the 2019/20 period.
Police forces are mandated to provide outcome data, but other agencies are not subject to Home Office Counting Rules and therefore do not report outcomes to the City of London Police.
Discrepancies between data and HO outcome data
This data is provisional management information subject to revision. It is based on the date received, rather than recorded.