A survey has found that fraud has affected around 73% of UK companies’ revenue in the past year, a figure that is expected to surge in 2025.
The survey, commissioned by Veriff, highlighted that online fraud is one of the biggest threats to companies’ revenues in the UK. Almost two-thirds (64%) of businesses reported revenue losses between 1% and 9%, while 9% reported losses ranging from 10% to more than 20% of annual revenue.
Iryna Bondar, Senior Fraud Group Manager at Veriff, stated that these findings “paint a stark picture” of online fraud’s growing financial threat to British businesses. Bondar added: “We’re seeing not just more fraud attempts, but increasingly sophisticated attacks that can bypass traditional security measures.”
Of the 200 fraud professionals surveyed, 61.5% of businesses reported an increase in AI-powered attacks. Among the types of attacks driven by the technology are malware, impersonation fraud, document fraud and third-party coercion.
AI is also being used to produce fake identities, with nearly a quarter of UK businesses stating that 11-25% of monthly ID verification attempts are fraudulent, and 10% of companies said that fraudulent attempts exceed 25% of all verification volume.
When it comes to combating fraud, only 52.5% admit to being “somewhat prepared”. This is despite 60% of UK companies already using AI and machine learning for fraud prevention.
“Many companies that haven’t yet suffered significant losses are confusing luck with preparedness. This complacency, not strength, leaves them particularly vulnerable as AI-driven threats rapidly outpace legacy security tools. It’s not a question of if they’ll be targeted, but when,” concluded Bondar.
“As fraudsters become more sophisticated, businesses must respond with equally advanced defences or risk losing both revenue and customer trust. The most effective strategy combines multiple layers of protection to make attacks too costly and time-consuming for criminals.”
Progress being made
Recent announcements suggest that the UK financial industry is aware of the rising levels of fraud and has started to make progress in combating the threat.
Earlier this month, large companies from the payments, telecommunications and technology sectors agreed to share data across industries. This is notable, given that the majority of industry stakeholders stated that social media companies need to be more accountable.
Furthermore, Innovate Finance published an anti-fraud strategy. This plan featured three key actions to tackle fraud: establish a National Anti-Fraud Centre, amend the Online Safety Act 2023, and develop and export new anti-fraud regulatory technology (RegTech) solutions.
