A new national fraud reporting service has launched in the UK, promising to transform how businesses and individuals notify law enforcement about offenses, and how police respond.
Report Fraud replaces the much-maligned Action Fraud service. Run, like its predecessor, by City of London Police, it covers England, Wales and Northern Ireland.
Action Fraud was widely criticized by victims as “not fit for purpose” – with unprofessional staff, slow response times and a failure to investigate reports or provide updates.
However, the new service aims to provide a more sophisticated, user-friendly and effective mechanism for fraud reporting, via a “single, modern national reporting, triage and intelligence platform.”
It features:
- Real-time analytics powered by Palantir and Microsoft
- An interactive portal, enabling victims to track the status of their reports and update cases with new information
- Proactive victim notifications, sharing when their reports have helped others
- Instant intelligence sharing among police forces and relevant businesses – to launch investigations, take down fake websites, shut scam accounts etc
A big part of the change will come from a new backend National Crime Analysis Service (N-CAS), which offers real-time analytics to better identify fraud patterns and surface intelligence.
A national advertising campaign, “Every Report Counts,” will run this week to promote the launch.
City of London Police commissioner, Pete O’Doherty, is the senior responsible officer for delivering Report Fraud – a project that has been years in the making. He argued that despite fraud and cyber being the most common crime type in the UK today, victims often feel unsure where to turn.
“These crimes cause more than financial loss and often have devastating impacts on those targeted. We see the true cost of cybercrime and fraud when taking reports from those affected,” he added.
“Report Fraud is a landmark step forward. The service puts victims first, gives them a clear national front door to policing, and strengthens our ability, and that of every police force, to identify, disrupt and pursue the criminals behind these offenses. This is not just a new service; it is a major upgrade to the UK’s defences against economic crime.”
A Multibillion-Pound Problem
According to City of London Police, fraud and cybercrime now account for around half of all crime in the UK, costing the economy billions annually in the process.
The figure for 2024 was over £11bn ($15bn), according to Cifas. The latest figures from banking body UK Finance revealed a 3% increase in losses and a 17% annual surge in fraud cases in H1 2025. In total, consumers lost £629m ($839m) in the first half of the year on the back of 2.1 million cases.
Much of the rise in losses came from authorized push payment (APP) fraud, which includes impersonation, investment and romance scams.
Jonathan Frost, director of global advisory for EMEA at BioCatch and formerly of City of London Police, argued that fraud prevention and prosecution must go hand in hand.
“Fraud is still committed by identifiable people and networks that are within the reach of law enforcement. When offenders can be prosecuted, the state has a duty to do so. Prevention matters, but deterrence only works when enforcement is credible,” he said.
“The legal framework isn’t the problem – that was fixed in 2006. What holds us back today is capacity, misaligned incentives and a growing detection asymmetry that favours criminals.”
Read more on UK fraud: Improve Collaboration to Hit Back at Rising Fraud, Says techUK.
