Santander reports that over £18 million was taken from customers by scammers in the first quarter of 2025. To address the issue, the bank has introduced a “Quarterly Scamtracker” to monitor emerging fraud trends across its retail banking sector.
Although the £18 million figure represents a 13% decrease compared to the previous quarter (Q4 2024), Santander has noted several concerning new trends. Impersonation scams, advance fee scams, and romance/friendship scams were identified as the top rising scams in Q1 2025, collectively resulting in nearly £3.5 million being lost to fraud. This rise in scams is notable, despite research indicating that over half of consumers are aware of romance/friendship scams (63%) and impersonation scams (49%).
Despite a 17% reduction in claim values overall, the Scamtracker reveals that purchase scams still account for more than half of all claims in Q1 2025, with another £3.5 million lost. Notably, cases involving gig tickets made up over 10% of all purchase scam claims, as scammers took advantage of the high demand for tickets to events featuring artists like Sabrina Carpenter and Coldplay.
While most claim values have dropped from the previous quarter, impersonation scams involving organizations other than banks or police—such as HMRC—saw a significant increase, now representing nearly 14% (£1.2 million) of the total amount stolen, up from 13% in Q4 2024.
Chris Ainsley, head of fraud risk management at Santander UK, commented, “Scams are evolving at breakneck speed, making it exceptionally hard for customers to keep up with new threats. Recently, we encountered fake sportswear ads on Facebook that led to 450 customers losing their money. It is crucial to equip customers with the information they need to protect themselves from these criminals, as we seek to prevent a rise in the £18 million figure in future Scamtracker reports.”