New Fraud Strategy: a moment for bold reform

Insights Perspective

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Freya Smith, Senior Analyst

Thursday 17 April 2025

Fraud accounts for 40% of all crime, yet the national response to fraud does not match the scale of the threat it poses. Fraud has been under-prioritised for over a decade, allowing the UK to become ‘a haven for fraudsters’. Despite renewed political focus – most notably through the 2023 Fraud Strategy – the scale of ambition continues to fall short. The Fraud Strategy set a target to reduce fraud by 10% on 2019 levels by the end of 2024. But instead of falling, fraud rose by 19% last year alone. As we concluded in our report Turning the Tide: a plan to tackle online fraud, such targets were unlikely to be met without major reform and sustained investment.

Against this backdrop, the government’s recent announcement that it will publish an expanded fraud strategy as part of its Plan for Change is welcome. A key focus of this strategy will be combatting tech-enabled fraud, alongside improving cross border cooperation on fraud threats. These are important ambitions. However, a truly effective strategy must go beyond broad commitments and tackle systemic gaps in fraud prevention and response if the government is to meet its stated goal of reducing fraud and restoring public confidence in the UK’s fraud response. If not, the strategy risks repeating the cycle of under-resourcing, fragmented responsibilities, and reactive enforcement that has allowed fraud to thrive in the UK. 

At Crest, our research has consistently highlighted the need for a more systemic, joined-up, and forward-looking approach to tackle fraud. Drawing on this body of work, we identify three areas the expanded strategy must address to be truly effective: adequate resources, greater cooperation, and the smart use of technology. 

Read our full reports on tackling fraud, including our Action Plan with detailed recommendations to improve the fraud response, here, or get in touch with our Director of Research sophie.davis@crestadvisory.com to find out how we can support.

Adequate resources: building the foundation for a world-leading response

Whilst the government has not announced what, or even if, new resources will be levelled towards the fraud response as part of the expanded strategy, it is imperative that funding and capacity match the scale of the threat. 

This is particularly critical when it comes to policing. In our engagement with police forces and national stakeholders, a consistent theme emerged: resource constraints are a major barrier to effective enforcement. This is not surprising when considering that fraud accounts for only around 1% of the total policing budget.

The 2023 Fraud Strategy committed to establishing a new National Fraud Squad with 400 new specialist investigators. However, this extra resource falls significantly below what is required to meet current demand, let alone drive meaningful improvements. Even though fraud is now included in the Strategic Policing Requirement, the lack of dedicated funding and personnel has rendered this largely symbolic. 

As such, in line with one of our previous recommendations, the expanded fraud strategy should set out a dedicated ring-fenced budget to fund the fraud response, which could be partly funded through money raised through asset recovery and fines levied for economic crimes. The level of resources should be commensurate with the scale of the threat, and the budget should be protected from being reallocated to other areas to ensure consistent and focused funding for anti-fraud efforts. Any fraud strategy will fall short if the institutions responsible for delivering it are under-resourced and under-prepared.

Co-operation: aligning the goals and incentives of actors

The unique and cross-cutting nature of fraud means that the response cannot lie with a single organisation, but requires a whole-system approach. Yet the response to fraud in the UK is fragmented, involving a myriad of actors who often operate in silos with limited coordination, unclear roles, and conflicting incentives.

It is promising that the government has committed to improving cooperation across sectors in the expanded strategy. But enhancing cooperation cannot rely on goodwill alone – it must tackle the structural reasons why cooperation is currently so limited. Our research identifies two major barriers: poor data sharing between actors, and a lack of meaningful incentives for technology platforms to take stronger action against fraud. 

There has been some welcome progress in this area– for example, the creation of a public private partnership between the National Crime Agency and banks, as recommended in our report. However, more needs to be done. The Online Fraud Charter – introduced in 2023 – sets out commitments for major tech companies to take stronger action on fraud. However, its voluntary nature means it lacks teeth. To address this, the government should consider legislating the Charter to ensure consistent, enforceable standards. In parallel, an annual, performance based levy on online platforms would incentivise them to invest in meaningful prevention efforts and work more closely with other actors in the system. 

Leveraging technology: staying ahead of fraudsters

In February 2024, it was reported that an employee was scammed into paying out $25 million to fraudsters who used deep fake technology to pose as the company’s chief financial officer during a video call. This is just one example of how rapidly and relentlessly fraudsters are exploiting technological advances such as artificial intelligence. At the same time, policies and systems aimed at preventing and responding to fraud have failed to keep up with this pace. This dynamic must fundamentally change – we cannot afford to remain in a constant state of catch-up. 

It is therefore promising that a key focus of the strategy will be combatting tech-enabled fraud, including threats driven by emerging technologies like AI. We are already starting to see some innovative examples of technology being leveraged to remain ahead of fraudsters. For example, O2 has introduced an AI tool named Daisy, a lifelike ‘AI Granny’ designed to waste scammers time by engaging in long, rambling conversations. But while creative, these initiatives remain isolated. The expanded fraud strategy presents a critical opportunity to move towards a system-wide approach that embeds technology at the heart of the UK’s response.

This means going beyond reactive measures and investing in long-term, scalable solutions that harness technology to prevent fraud before it happens. One potential step could be the creation of an “advanced procurement agency” to support the development and deployment of cutting-edge fraud-prevention tools. As proposed by the Tony Blair Institute, this agency could be tasked with identifying strategic priorities, stimulating demand for innovative products and services, and co-designing solutions with industry, the National Crime Agency, and Regional Organised Crime Units. Crucially, staying ahead of fraudsters also requires a regulatory and policy framework that is agile enough to keep pace with the speed of technological change, alongside other societal changes that may impact fraud, as outlined in our future trends paper. 

Conclusion: a moment for bold reform

The government’s ambition to expand the fraud strategy is a welcome recognition of the scale and urgency of the threat. But ambition alone is not enough. Without a clear plan to resource, coordinate, and modernise the UK’s fraud response, we risk repeating the same cycle of missed targets and rising victimisation.

To succeed, the expanded strategy must shift from reactive measures and fragmented efforts to a unified, preventative, and future-ready model. At Crest, we continue to support this agenda with evidence-based insights and recommendations. 

Read our full reports on tackling fraud, including our Action Plan with detailed recommendations to improve the fraud response, here, or get in touch with our Director of Research sophie.davis@crestadvisory.com to find out how we can support.