Trend Cost of living pressure increasing susceptibility to investment scams

Summary

The report expects cost of living pressures to make people more vulnerable to investment scams that promise to make them rich quickly. Investment fraud is listed with payment diversion, romance, courier and bank account fraud as one of the most common fraud types in the UK. Fraud is the most prevalent crime in the country, with about 3.9 million offences in the year to June 2024. There are already cases of AI-generated celebrity videos being used to entice people into fraudulent investments. The report sees those behind fraud and illicit finance continuing to exploit the most vulnerable in society, linking this to the chronic risk of disproportionate impacts on vulnerable persons.