UK Card Fraud Statistics - August 2026

Card Fraud Losses

£594.9 million was lost to fraud on UK-issued cards in 2025.

That is a near-flat result against the £592.5 million lost in 2024 (UK Finance Annual Fraud Report 2026). The flat headline hides a shift in method: total unauthorised fraud losses (card, remote banking and cheque combined) actually fell 5% to £703.4 million in 2025, even as unauthorised case numbers rose to 3.81 million (UK Finance, 2026). Criminals are running a high-volume, low-value model: more victims, smaller sums per victim.

Within the card fraud total, UK Finance (2026) breaks out the following 2025 figures:

• Remote purchase fraud: £423.5 million, up 3% (covered in detail below).
• Lost and stolen card fraud: £109.8 million, down 2%, across 449,189 cases.
• Contactless fraud: £46.8 million, up 8%.

Alongside cards, remote banking fraud(criminals accessing a victim's online, phone or mobile banking) fell 27% to £104.4 million in 2025, across 37,646 cases (UK Finance, 2026).

Across all fraud types, UK Finance (2026) counted 4.06 million confirmed fraud cases in 2025, an 11% rise and a record: 3.81 million unauthorised cases plus 248,070 authorised push payment cases.

Remote Purchase Fraud

Remote purchase fraud cost £423.5 million in 2025, with cases up 13% to 3.2 million.

Remote purchase fraud, also called card-not-present fraud, is where criminals use stolen card details to buy online, over the phone or by mail order. Losses rose 3% to £423.5 million in 2025 while case numbers jumped 13% to 3.2 million (UK Finance Annual Fraud Report 2026), making it the main driver of unauthorised payment fraud losses. UK Finance attributes the growth partly to criminals switching tactics as controls on faster payments improved.

For a business taking cards, this is the category that matters most: remote purchase fraud is what arrives at your checkout as a fraudulent order, and it is what comes back later as a chargeback.

APP Fraud

APP fraud losses rose 19% to £576.4 million in 2025.

Authorised push payment (APP) fraud is where a victim is tricked into sending money themselves, typically by bank transfer. Losses reached £576.4 million in 2025, up 19%, across 248,070 cases, up 7% (UK Finance Annual Fraud Report 2026). Within that:

• Investment scams: £221.5 million, up 40% year on year, with cases up 26% (UK Finance, 2026).
• Purchase scams: £118.1 million, up 20%; purchase scams accounted for 71% of all APP cases (UK Finance, 2026).
• Romance fraud: £39.2 million, up 23% (UK Finance, 2026).

Of the £576.4 million lost, £354.3 million (61%) was reimbursed to victims (UK Finance, 2026).

APP Reimbursement: The PSR Data

88% of money claimed back after an APP scam was returned to victims in the first nine months of mandatory reimbursement.

Mandatory reimbursement rules for APP scams sent over Faster Payments came into force on 7 October 2024. The Payment Systems Regulator's one-year review (covering 7 October 2024 to 30 June 2025) reports:

• 88% of the money lost to APP scams and claimed back from a payment firm was returned to victims (PSR, 2026).
• 84% of claims were resolved within five business days, and 97% within 35 days (PSR, 2026).
• 126,000 claims were made between October 2024 and June 2025, around 15% fewer than the same period a year earlier, and £112 million was reimbursed to victims in the first nine months of the policy (PSR, 2026).
• Awareness remains the weak point: 71% of fraud victims say they are unaware of the reimbursement policy (PSR, 2026).

The PSR's earlier APP fraud performance data (covering 1 January to 6 October 2024, before the mandatory rules) showed how uneven reimbursement used to be between banks: Nationwide reimbursed 85% of the value its customers lost, while at the other end of the tables, Metro Bank customers lost £377 to APP scams for every £1 million they sent (PSR APP fraud performance data, 2024 reporting period).

Prevention

£1.68 billion of attempted unauthorised fraud was stopped in 2025.

UK Finance (2026) reports that banks and card companies prevented £1.68 billion of attempted unauthorised fraud in 2025, equivalent to roughly 70p in every £1 attempted. Prevention systems (transaction monitoring, Strong Customer Authentication, confirmation of payee) are why loss totals have stayed broadly flat while attempt volumes keep climbing.

What It Means for Merchants

Two of the numbers above land directly on card-accepting businesses:

• Remote purchase fraud is growing in volume (cases up 13%), and it reaches you as chargebacks.When a cardholder's stolen details are used at your checkout, the eventual dispute usually lands on the merchant, especially for card-not-present sales where liability does not shift to the card issuer. Our guide to card machine chargebacks walks through how disputes work, the evidence that wins them, and the fees providers charge per chargeback.
• Fraud screening causes false declines too. The same prevention systems that stopped £1.68 billion of attempted fraud (UK Finance, 2026) also block some legitimate payments. If a customer insists they were charged but your terminal declined, see what to do when a customer is charged but the payment declined.

Fraud and chargeback exposure is also a pricing input: sectors with high card-not-present volume or high dispute rates get quoted higher rates. If your statement shows chargeback fees or a rate that looks priced for risk you do not have, our free statement review will tell you what you are actually paying.

Frequently Asked Questions

Sources

• UK Finance, Annual Fraud Report 2026 (published June 2026, covering calendar year 2025): all card, unauthorised and APP fraud loss figures, case counts and prevention totals cited above.
• UK Finance, Annual Fraud Report 2026 press release (June 2026): remote purchase fraud and headline loss figures.
• Payment Systems Regulator, One year on: impact of APP reimbursement on victims (covering 7 October 2024 to 30 June 2025): reimbursement rates, claim volumes and awareness figures.
• Payment Systems Regulator, APP fraud performance data (reporting period 1 January to 6 October 2024): per-bank reimbursement and fraud incidence figures.

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