WHY IT MATTERS
The scale of the problem, in figures you can check.
What people and businesses in the UK lost to payment fraud in 2025, where the figures come from, and what they do and do not say.
THE SCALE OF THE PROBLEM
£1.28 billion was lost to payment fraud in the UK in 2025, up 4 per cent on 2024.
- £576.4 millionof it was authorised push payment fraud: money somebody was persuaded to send, up 19 per cent on 2024.
- £75.6 millionof that left business accounts rather than personal ones, down 11 per cent on 2024.
Some of that money left because somebody believed an email. We look at the email.
Figures for 2025 from the UK Finance Annual Fraud Report 2026.
WHAT EACH FIGURE IS
Exactly what they count.
Each figure is from the UK Finance Annual Fraud Report 2026, for the calendar year 2025. None is narrowed to make a point.
- 01
£1.28 billion: payment fraud
Both kinds UK Finance records: unauthorised fraud, where a criminal makes a payment without the account holder's permission, such as card fraud, and authorised push payment fraud, where the account holder is persuaded to make it.
- 02
£576.4 million: authorised push payment fraud
Money the account holder was persuaded to send to a criminal, by any route: a phone call, a text, a website, social media or an email.
- 03
£75.6 million: from business accounts
The part of the £576.4 million that left business accounts rather than personal ones, down 11 per cent on 2024. It is every kind of authorised push payment fraud against a business, however it began. It is not an invoice fraud figure and it is not an email fraud figure.
WHERE EMAIL COMES IN
Two scams that mostly affect businesses often start with an email.
UK Finance describes invoice and mandate scams as a criminal posing as a supplier and saying the bank details have changed, often after intercepting emails or taking over an email account. It describes CEO scams as an email that appears to come from somebody senior, asking the finance team to change payment details or make an urgent payment.
Money leaves businesses because somebody believed an email. We look at the email.
Read the UK Finance Annual Fraud Report 2026HOW OFTEN IT REACHES A BUSINESS
Phishing is the commonest attack a business identifies.
- 38%of UK businesses identified phishing attacks in the 12 months before they were asked, the commonest kind of breach or attack by far.
- 43%identified at least one cyber security breach or attack of any kind in the same 12 months.
From the UK Government Cyber Security Breaches Survey 2025/2026.
WHAT WE DO ABOUT IT
Check. Understand. Act.
When an email asks for a payment, a sign-in or a change of details, Jatzo gives the person holding it a clear answer about that email, the reasons for it and what to do next.