Card-Not-Present fraud slowly increasing in the UK as social engineering tactics evolve
LONDON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--
The 2025 European Fraud Map from global analytics software leader FICO (NYSE: FICO) shows that the UK financial services sector is making good strides in preventing fraud, as card fraud losses rose by just 2% year-on-year. This is in stark contrast to many European countries, including Norway, Sweden, Poland, Hungary and Greece, where fraud losses have jumped by 15% or more year-on-year. Across the continent, card fraud losses have reached an all-time high of €1.69 billion.
Reporting card fraud losses of £594.9 million in 2025, up slightly from £592.5 million in 2024, the UK remains below the peak of £620.6 million seen in 2019.Within these losses, Card-not-Present fraud increased slightly, from £412.5 million in 2024 to £423.5 million in 2025. The data for the map is provided by Euromonitor International, and for the UK by UK Finance.
“The biggest threat to the UK financial services ecosystem is the relentless use of social engineering tactics, requiring multiple strategies to thwart fraudsters across the full customer journey,” said Sarah Cassidy, senior fraud consultant at FICO in EMEA. “In particular, banks are seeing a concerning trend of consumers being tricked into divulging one-time passwords which allows fraudsters to connect the cards to their own devices and e-wallets. Once this ‘authentic’ token is created the fraudster can spend large amounts unchecked.”
Other highlights from the report for the UK:
ID fraud losses in the UK fell 12% from £61.5 million in 2024 to £54 million in 2025, despite the unprecedented acceleration in AI technology, which is allowing fraudsters to create increasingly convincing synthetic identities
Losses from Card Lost or Stolen also decreased, from £111.7 million to £109.8 million year-on-year
According to UK Finance data, the number of fraud cases has risen along with the number of cards in circulation. The threat of cards being taken by a fraudster is significant, particularly as changes to regulation around contactless limits mean a stolen card could yield more money before being PIN locked.
“While social engineering is a key concern across Europe, the UK has demonstrated its resilience against such attacks and has also made good strides in tackling ID fraud,” Cassidy said. “However, while fraud losses are under control for now, cases are still on the rise, and it is imperative that banks act. They must strengthen their fraud prevention across the full customer journey to successfully fight sophisticated fraud. AI tools, comprehensive customer profiling and monitoring of all transactional and non-transactional events will allow banks to detect patterns, pick up on warning signs and stop fraud and scams before losses occur.”
Intelligent decisioning across the account lifecycle is critical to understand how fraudsters target any link in the chain in order to exploit a bank account. Some UK banks are already utilising the award-winning Scam Signal solution, which is helping them identify the subtle markers of social engineering to intervene on scams before money leaves an account. The first real-time application bringing together telephony, customer and payment data to tackle the issue of APP fraud, the tool detects potential scam activity and enables banks to intervene with the customer if necessary.
FICO (NYSE: FICO) powers decisions that help people and businesses around the world prosper. Founded in 1956, the company is a pioneer in the use of predictive analytics and data science to improve operational decisions. FICO holds more than 200 US and foreign patents on technologies that increase profitability, customer satisfaction and growth for businesses in financial services, insurance, telecommunications, health care, retail and many other industries. Using FICO solutions, businesses in more than 80 countries do everything from protecting 4 billion payment cards from fraud, to improving financial inclusion, to increasing supply chain resiliency. The FICO® Score, used by 90% of top US lenders, is the standard measure of consumer credit risk in the US and has been made available in over 40 other countries, improving risk management, credit access and transparency. Learn more at www.fico.com.
FICO and Falcon are registered trademarks of Fair Isaac Corporation in the United States and other countries.
For further press information please contact:
FICO UK PR Team
Wendy Harrison/Matthew Enderby
ficoteam@harrisonsadler.com
0208 977 9132
Source: FICO
Key Terms
card-not-presentfinancial
Card-not-present describes a payment where the buyer’s payment card is not physically swiped or inserted at a point-of-sale—common with online, phone, or mail orders. For investors, it matters because these transactions carry higher fraud, dispute and processing risk than in-person sales, which can increase costs, reduce margins and affect revenue reliability, much like renting a car remotely rather than handing over keys in person.
social engineeringtechnical
Social engineering is the practice of manipulating people into revealing confidential information, granting access, or taking actions that compromise security, often by posing as a trusted person or using urgent, persuasive stories. For investors it matters because these scams can lead to direct financial loss, theft of sensitive corporate data, disrupted operations, or damage to a company’s reputation — similar to a con artist who tricks a business into handing over its keys.
one-time passwordstechnical
A one-time password (OTP) is a single-use numeric or alphanumeric code sent to a user’s phone, email, or generated by an app to confirm identity for a specific login or transaction. Like a disposable key or one-time ticket, it helps prevent unauthorized access and fraud; for investors, OTPs matter because stronger authentication reduces the risk of theft, supports regulatory compliance, and preserves trust in online trading and account security.
synthetic identitiestechnical
Synthetic identities are fake customer profiles created by combining real and fabricated personal details—like pieces of different IDs, Social Security numbers, or addresses—to open accounts, obtain credit, or hide transactions. For investors, they matter because this kind of fraud can inflate loan books, hide losses, trigger regulatory fines, and damage a lender’s trust and profitability; think of it as termites quietly weakening a building’s foundation until the damage becomes obvious.
