Behind the Numbers: Are You Taking Fraud Seriously Enough?

Why It Matters

Businesses now face legal and financial risk if they fail to prevent fraud; rising sophistication — including AI-driven impersonation — means firms must strengthen controls, oversight and fraud-detection capabilities or face bigger losses and potential prosecution.

Summary

UK fraud is surging in both volume and scale, prompting a government three-year plan that shifts more responsibility onto businesses — including new criminal liability for failing to prevent it. Experts say prosecutions have historically been too few, making fraud a low-risk, high-reward crime and driving innovation among scammers. Fraud types are evolving: authorized push payment scams have migrated to international transfers, traditional advance-fee schemes and Ponzi-type frauds persist, and there is a marked rise in AI- and deepfake-enabled social‑engineering attacks on corporate payment processes. Internal fraud remains common, especially in smaller and owner-managed firms, compounding exposures for companies with weak controls.

Original Description

Fraud is the largest reported crime in England and Wales, and the UK government wants to bring numbers down. With failure to prevent fraud now an offence, there is some onus on business to address the issue. But are enough businesses taking it seriously?

In this episode, we take a look at the common types of fraud, what businesses should be vigilant of, and how can they protect themselves?

Links

• UK government fraud strategy - https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/fraud-strategy-2026-to-2029

• UK fraud statistics - https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/crimeandjustice/articles/natureoffraudandcomputermisuseinenglandandwales/yearendingmarch2025

• ICAEW: Fraud helpsheets - https://www.icaew.com/technical/tas-helpsheets/fraud

• ICAEW: What the government’s new fraud strategies mean for business - https://www.icaew.com/insights/viewpoints-on-the-news/2026/apr-2026/what-the-governments-new-fraud-strategies-mean-for-business

• ICAEW: podcasts - https://www.icaew.com/insights/podcast

Host

Guy Ruddle

Guests

• Tristan Yelland, Partner, Forensic and Investigations, Grant Thornton

• Will Christopher, Partner, Kinsgsley Napley

Producer

Natalie Chisholm

Series Lead

Mark Rowland

Episode first published: 20 May 2026

Podcast recorded: 20 April 2026