The City of London Police said reforms to the national Report Fraud service cut average victim update times from 37 days to five in the first annual assessment covering cybercrime and fraud reports across England, Wales and Northern Ireland.
The report, covering the 2025–26 financial year, also recorded £3.2 billion in reported losses, up 26% on the prior period, and highlighted faster outcomes for more than 180,000 victims between January and June 2026. National lead officers said the shorter timelines reflect operational changes after the Action Fraud brand was retired in favour of Report Fraud branding and streamlined review queues.
How reporting pathways changed
Victims now receive a crime reference at the end of online submissions, with cases routed to analysis services overseen by the City of London Police before dissemination to local forces where lines of enquiry exist. The guide published on reportfraud.police.uk stresses that businesses under live cyber attack should call 0300 123 2040 immediately, while individuals can use the web form or phone lines during core hours.
Support teams offer prevention advice through Report Fraud Victim Services once a report clears initial triage. Police said the five-day average update time measures communication back to reporters, not the full investigation clock, which still varies by complexity and jurisdiction.
Threat picture behind the statistics
The assessment separately documented rising use of artificial intelligence in investment scams, with 956 reports tagging AI involvement in 2025–26 versus 193 the year before, and reported losses linked to those cases rising from £1.2 million to £9.6 million. Investment fraud overall accounted for 36,464 reports and £911 million in stated losses, often involving deepfake endorsements or cloned voices.
Cryptocurrency appeared as an enabler in 32,493 reports spanning 53 fraud codes, underscoring how digital asset transfers complicate recovery. Small and medium-sized enterprises made up 62% of organisation reports where size was known, a reminder that fraud pressure is not limited to retail consumers.
What victims should expect next
Police continue to urge reporting even when recovery looks unlikely, because intelligence feeds disruption teams and banking fraud protocols. Faster updates aim to reduce duplicate submissions and give victims clearer expectations while analysts prioritise cases with actionable financial trails.
For corporate security chiefs, the annual tally is both a performance metric and a threat brief: shorter response times help morale, but the underlying loss figures show criminals adopting AI tooling faster than prevention campaigns scale. Training desks are likely to emphasise verification steps for any investment pitch that arrives via social video or messaging apps, regardless of how polished the production looks.
Banks and the reimbursement debate
Payment Services Regulator rules on authorised push-payment fraud continue to shape how quickly victims get redress after a report is filed. The annual assessment does not replace bank-led refunds, but faster police acknowledgements help customers prove they acted promptly when challenging transactions. Industry fraud forums said they are feeding AI-tag fields into shared intelligence databases so issuers can tune transaction monitoring for synthetic voice scams.
Scotland retains separate reporting routes through Police Scotland, and the City of London assessment covers England, Wales and Northern Ireland only. Cross-border cases still stall when cryptocurrency exchanges sit offshore, a gap policymakers want to close through international memorandums rather than longer victim-update emails alone.