Romance scammers are posing as savvy investors flaunting fake profits, Nationwide Building Society is warning.

The society said it was seeing criminals moving away from “dramatic emergency pleas” and towards manipulation involving bogus financial opportunities.

It said reported cases of romance scams increased by 5% between 2024 and 2025.

https://www.msn.com/en-gb/money/other/romance-scammers-shifting-tactics-towards-bogus-investment-schemes/ar-AA1W6Vl8

Collapse of bribery prosecution exposes wider disclosure failings at fraud agency

The UK Serious Fraud Office has dropped its prosecution against former executives of London Mining following a decade-long investigation, after problems emerged with its evidence review software that could impact more than a dozen cases.

The SFO said in a hearing at Southwark Crown Court on Thursday that it was offering no evidence and the three defendants in the case were formally acquitted by the judge.

https://www.ft.com/content/0fe2cac3-0794-4bd4-9acb-31b35b463312

The fraud trial linked to the collapse of Patisserie Valerie has been delayed until 2028, just weeks before proceedings were due to begin.

At a hearing at Southwark Crown Court on Monday, Judge Adam Hiddleston agreed to postpone the trial of four defendants charged in connection with the failure of the high street café chain, following an application by the defence for more time to prepare evidence.

https://www.thebusinessdesk.com/westmidlands/news/2108212-patisserie-valerie-fraud-trial-delayed-until-2028

The City of London Police, the national lead force for fraud, today announces the full public launch of Report Fraud - a new national service designed to transform how victims and businesses across England, Wales and Northern Ireland report cyber crime and fraud, and how law enforcement and industry respond.

Cyber crime and fraud are now the most common crime in the UK, accounting for around 50 per cent of all offences and costing the economy billions of pounds each year. Cyber-enabled crime and fraud continues to grow in both scale and sophistication, targeting individuals, small businesses and major organisations alike. Report Fraud has been created to meet this challenge head-on, providing a single, modern national gateway for reporting and intelligence that will strengthen the collective response of policing, government and the private sector.

https://www.cityoflondon.police.uk/news/city-of-london/news/2026/january/report-fraud-launches/

The UK government plans to establish a National Police Service—a body already informally dubbed the “British FBI”—that would take responsibility for investigating organised crime, terrorism, fraud and the online exploitation of children. The move would mark one of the most sweeping changes to policing in England and Wales in recent years.

The Home Office is set to announce the creation of the new service on Monday in a dedicated policy document. The reform would abandon the current model, under which investigations into fraud, the activities of organised crime groups and nationwide counterterrorism operations are split across several agencies—including the National Crime Agency and regional units reporting to local police forces.

https://sfg.media/en/a/uk-national-police-service-serious-organized-crime-british-fbi/

Nick Ephgrave QPM, the Director of the Serious Fraud Office (SFO), will retire at the end of March.

The decision comes after 38 years serving the public, holding senior roles in UK law enforcement, with the Metropolitan and Surrey police forces as well as the National Police Chiefs’ Council.

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/sfo-director-announces-retirement

Fraud has quietly become the defining crime of modern life. Every day, thousands wake up to discover their savings gone, their trust shattered, and almost no hope of recovery. Yet the government’s delay leaves millions exposed to industrial-scale scams thriving on the platforms we use every day.

UK Finance’s “Half-Year Fraud Report” 2025 makes the scale painfully clear. Criminals stole £629.3mn in the first half of 2025, a 3 per cent increase on the same period in 2024.

https://www.ftadviser.com/content/aa4b3d8f-8ecf-4016-8e0a-cacbcfd0318f

The former manager of a Nottingham city centre chicken shop has been jailed after fraudulently securing £50,000 in Covid support, after selling the business the year before the claim.

Mujeebullah Khan applied for the maximum-value Bounce Back Loan on behalf of Chunky Chicken in May 2020.

https://www.thecaterer.com/news/former-nottingham-chicken-shop-owner-jailed-over-50000-covid-loan-fraud

Report Fraud has replaced Action Fraud for use in England, Wales and Northern Ireland.

Anyone searching for how to report cybercrime or fraud, or trying to use Action Fraud, will be directed to the new service, which can be accessed online at reportfraud.police.uk or by calling 0300 123 2040.

Report Fraud will provide:

> A clear and simple reporting process to tell the police about cybercrime and fraud

> Guidance on what to report and how information is used

> Further support information for victims

The go-live of Report Fraud marks the beginning of a new service to improve the national response and, most significantly, the development of a more comprehensive intelligence picture of cybercrime and fraud affecting people and businesses, resulting in a faster response from law enforcement agencies.

https://www.reportfraud.police.uk/news/report-fraud-service-goes-live/

When most people think of bribery, it elicits images of shadowy offshore accounts and high-level business executives and politicians shaking hands in boardrooms. It is certainly not something that we might think of in our everyday lives. A new report by ISEC suggests that everyday corruption in the UK is both widespread and largely invisible.

In our report, we surveyed 1,000 UK adults about their experiences of bribery and money laundering. The results were alarming.

• 16% of respondents—roughly 7.5 million adults—said they’d been asked to pay a bribe in the past year.
• 9% actually paid one.
• 11% were asked to help launder money.
• 7% admitted taking part.

https://www.economic-criminology.com/post/the-uk-s-dirty-secret-millions-of-britons-are-exposed-to-bribery-and-money-laundering