City of London Police has revealed that more than £612m was lost to investment fraud in the UK last year.
The data from Action Fraud, the national fraud and cyber crime reporting service, revealed the soaring rate of investment fraud, with a reported £612,208,663 in losses.
Investment opportunities could include foreign exchange, gold and valuable metals, time-shares overseas and cryptocurrency where victims are told they can see a huge return on investment, way above market trends.
Reports to Action Fraud shoed that from January 2023 to January 2024, there were 30,130 reports of investment fraud, with the average loss per victim being £25,110.
City of London Police, the national lead force for fraud, saw one report from a victim who lost a total of £11.9m.
The data also revealed that the highest affected age range was those aged 55-64 years old, and that as the victim’s age increases, so does the loss amount. In the 55-64 age range alone, over £133m in losses was recorded.
Temporary detective superintendent Oliver Little, from the Lead Force Operations Room at the City of London Police, said: “Investment fraud destroys lives and is of particular concern to the older demographic of the UK public. Victims who are being targeted are those with a healthy amount of savings who have put their hard-earned money away for a rainy day, or to help support family and have been robbed of those opportunities.”
Cryptocurrency was the most common commodity that victims believed they were investing in and accounted for 40% of all reports. Unspecified trading and stocks and shares collectively accounted for 10 per cent of reporting. Analysts at the City of London Police suggested that the reason cryptocurrency and general trading in stocks were popular could be because fraudsters ask for a smaller upfront investment to ‘prove’ the opportunity is legitimate. This tactic presents itself as a lower risk for investors.
In 861 (3%) reports, the names of social media or influential personalities were used to persuade investors into making investments. Investors saw advertisements on social media platforms and articles featuring well known celebrities such as Martin Lewis promoting trading platforms, with celebrities or high-profile figures mentioned in 89% of these reports.
