Fraudscape
Think tank: Social Market Foundation
Author(s): Richard Hyde; John Asthana Gibson
March 12, 2024
This report from UK think tank the Social Market Foundation discusses the size of the fraud problem around the world.
Fraud is not just a problem for the UK, it is a pressing issue for many countries around the world.
Using data from 15 countries, this Social Market Foundation paper provides an aggregated picture of the scale of the ‘fraudemic’ being experienced by populations across the globe.
The Social Market Foundation surveyed a representative sample of adults across 15 countries – the G7 nations along with Australia, New Zealand and Singapore, as well as Argentina, Brazil, Mexico, Portugal and Spain – about fraud.
The survey showed that around one in five respondents had been a victim of fraud at least once between 2021 and 2023, and that around four in ten of those victims had been defrauded multiple times. This implies a total of around 228 million victims and more than 331 million frauds committed against individuals over the three-year period.
The survey also found that fraud victimisation is evenly spread across age cohorts, with those aged 35-44 the most likely to fall victim to fraudsters (23%).
The most frequently reported kind of fraud are “push payments” (40%). More than half of survey participants believe that their government gives no or only a low priority to fraud.
