Financial fraud losses totalled £755 million in 2015, an increase of a quarter on 2014. Fraud losses on British payment cards came to a total of £567.5 million and remote banking fraud losses stood at £168.6 million last year.

In October 2015 the UK's Money Advice Service carried out research that found that more than six in ten people had received a suspicious phone call during a 12-month period. This was from survey of 2,014 people by Opinium in late September and early October 2015. Meanwhile, the Financial Ombudsman Service’s review of complaints about phone fraud found that eight in ten victims were older than 55.

With this in mind, the Financial Ombudsman Service has done some studies and praised a so-called "Daily Money Management programme" in the US and a "MoneyMinded programme" in Australia and the South Pacific. These initiatives have shown that the maintenance of social networks and the co-ordination of different agencies can help safeguard people against scams. The FOS will shortly be publishing a review of techniques that improve old people’s financial capability, and the job of raising awareness about fraud is to be part of it. It is now looking for organisations in the UK with which to collaborate against fraud and, to quote its surprising turn of phrase, to 'identify learnings.'

Scammers often exploit the latest technology to impersonate genuine organisations, making them harder than ever to spot. Unfortunately, few academics have bothered to evaluate the efficacy of 'scam awareness' initiatives in the UK. Because of this, the authorities lack enough evidence to determine what works best in that area.

Banks have been fighting fraud to good effect over the last two years. As well as the security features of which customers are aware, such as the use of three-digit card security codes when shopping online or over the phone, there are many sophisticated security systems which, according to the FOS, stopped £7 in every £10 of fraud from happening last year.