More than £4.2bn ($5.17bn) was stolen by fraudsters and cyber criminals in the UK according to figures published in the Fraud and Cyber Crime Report 2022. The report, produced by personal finance experts on the money.co.uk website, details a big increase from 2021 when ‘only’ £2.4bn ($2.95bn) was stolen.

A total of 350,546 cyber crimes were reported in 2022, which is 21% fewer than the previous year. In 2021, 445,375 reports were filed, and just 35,739 in 2020.

But while there were fewer reported cyber frauds and crimes in 2022, each one cost more on average per victim. The average sum of a report was almost £12,000 ($14,780) in 2022, and just under £5,400 ($6,653) in 2021.

Greater sophistication

“Cyber crime has been dominating the headlines over the past two years as fraudsters are becoming more sophisticated in their attacks. Successful criminals are stealing hundreds of thousands of pounds from just a single intrusion in some cases,” the report said. 

The quarter with most reports was Q1, with 90,490 cases in total; Q2 had 88,199 filings, with 87,048 in Q3, and 84,809 in Q4.

The biggest total losses came in Q3, totalling over £1.6bn ($1.97bn). The lowest total loss, £610.3m ($751.8m), came in Q1, despite the period featuring the most fraudulent activity. In Q3, the average cost per fraud was around £18,380 ($22,567), more than twice as much as the average in Q1.

Online shopping continues to be the biggest source of fraudulent reports, as it was last year. Almost one in five reports featured online shopping.

“Cyber crimes cost Brits more than £4bn last year, with losses rising yet again. This is a reminder for us to protect our data online and be more vigilant when making purchases online,” said James Andrews, senior personal finance expert at money.co.uk.

According to the report, individuals under 60 were most affected and targeted by online shopping and auctions fraud.