To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what information her Department holds on the average financial loss per fraud victim in 2022.
Answered on
7 March 2023
Fraud covers a diverse range of modus operandi and as a result losses incurred by victims can vary and there is no typical victim. Caution should therefore be applied in using data to generate an average loss figure.
The Office for National Statistics publish annually the financial losses for fraud broken down into bands, Fraud victims incurred a financial loss in around two in three (64%) incidents in the year ending March 2022 Telephone-operated Crime Survey for England and Wales (TCSEW) (Nature of crime: fraud and computer misuse table 8a). Financial loss represents incidents where an amount of money or cash had been stolen or taken as a direct result of fraud, regardless of any later reimbursement, or any additional charges or costs incurred (such as bank charges, repair costs or replacement costs).
In incidents for which victims suffered a financial loss:
- the average (median) loss being £79
- the majority (77%) incurred a loss of less than £250
- around 14% incurred a loss of between £250 and £999, and the remaining 9% incurred a loss of £1,000 or more
Financial loss suffered by victims of fraud, Telephone-operated Crime Survey for England and Wales (TCSEW) | |||
Financial loss | Total proportion of frauds | Percentage of those frauds involving financial loss | Cumulative total |
No financial loss | 35.5 | [z] | [z] |
Less than £20 | 7.0 | 10.9 | 10.9 |
£20 - £49 | 15.9 | 24.7 | 35.6 |
£50 - £99 | 13.4 | 20.8 | 56.4 |
£100 - £249 | 13.6 | 21.1 | 77.5 |
£250 - £499 | 6.6 | 10.2 | 87.7 |
£500 - £999 | 2.3 | 3.6 | 91.2 |
£1,000 - £2,499 | 3.2 | 4.9 | 96.1 |
£2,500 - £4,999 | 1.5 | 2.3 | 98.4 |
£5,000 - £9,999 | 0.4 | 0.7 | 99.1 |
£10,000 or more [note 5] | 0.6 | 0.9 | 100.0 |
Median loss [note 6] [note 7] | [z] | £79 | [z] |
Unweighted base - number of incidents | 2,708 | 1,653 | [z] |
Source: Office for National Statistics - Telephone-operated Crime Survey for England and Wales (TCSEW)
Note 1: This represents incidents where an amount of money or cash had been stolen or taken as a direct result of fraud, regardless of any later reimbursement, or any additional charges or costs incurred (such as bank charges, repair costs or replacement costs).