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Written question asked by Lord Moraes (Labour) on Tuesday, 19 May 2026, in the House of Lords. It was due for an answer on Wednesday, 3 June 2026. It was answered by Lord Hanson of Flint (Labour) on Tuesday, 2 June 2026 on behalf of the Home Office.

Internet: Fraud

Question

To ask His Majesty's Government what statistics they produce on the number of UK citizens who are victims of online fraud originating (1) within the UK, and (2) outside of the UK.

Answer

According to the Office for National Statistics, there were an estimated 4.16 million incidents of fraud against adults in England and Wales, across 3.4 million victims in the year ending March 2025. 56% of these incidents were estimated to have some online element to them, implying 2.3 million incidents of online-enabled fraud.

We do not collect data on the number of frauds that originate from overseas. However, in 2022, the City of London Police estimated that around 70% of fraud incidents have an international element to them.

We use data from a wide range of sources to build our understanding of the fraud landscape, including published reports from businesses and consumer groups, and surveys such as the Economic Crime Survey. We continue to build the threat picture to better target our interventions, including through our Online Crime Centre launched in April.

Secondary information

Type
Written question
Reference
HL281
Session
2026-27
Grouped for answer
Yes
Subjects
Fraud Internet
Contains statistics
Yes
Link
View this Written question on www.parliament.uk