Do you live in Devon or Derbyshire?
These were among the worst hit areas for recent scams, with customers at just one high street bank in the UK losing £18,000,000 in the first three months of 2025 alone.
Santander UK released data breaking down the areas where customers lost the most money to fraud.
Greater London came out top, with 903 customers reporting a claim between January and March 2025.
Devon, Derbyshire, Kent, Hampshire and Greater Manchester made up the top five regions outside of London, by amounts stolen, with more than £5 million stolen in the first quarter of this year.
The figures are a wake-up call to the sheer scale of the money made by scammers.
And although the money lost would make you a millionaire many times over, these millions are peanuts compared to the full scale of fraud, which is the most prevalent crime in the UK and costs an estimated £6.8bn each year in England and Wales alone.
Santander released their Quarterly Scamtracker last month, aimed at gathering data on emerging trends in Authorised Push Payment fraud and customers impacted.
Today, they revealed which regions have been hit the hardest.
Outside of London, Devon was the hardest hit financially in the first quarter of the year, with more than £1.3 million stolen, a massive 315% increase on the previous quarter.
Second in the list was Derbyshire, which also saw £1.3 million stolen from customers, a 467% increase on the previous quarter’s value.
In Greater London, there were 903 claims and a total of more than £3.8 million stolen by scammers.
What are Authorised Push Payment (APP) scams?
They are where victims are tricked into making payments to an account, believing they are sending money for a legitimate reason.
This differs from fraud where money may simply be stolen without the account holder’s knowledge.
Some of the most common scams were for products that didn’t really exist – so-called ‘purchase scams’ – such Oasis, Sabrina Carpenter and Coldplay concert tickets posted on social media to lure in victims.
In the last week of March alone, more than 400 people were caught out by a scam advert for Sports Direct, selling discounted designer goods via Facebook.
Purchase scams were the most commonly reported scam amount 18-34 year olds, while those aged 80+ were more likely to raise a claim following a scammer impersonating their bank.
Protect against purchase scams
Santander gave the following warnings about buying things online:
- Is the item really hard to find, or priced under the recommended selling value? If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.
- Is the seller making extra effort in communicating to push the sale through? This should be a red flag.
- A seller you don’t know asks you to use ‘PayPal Friends & Family’ service or to pay for goods by bank transfer. It’s a big no-no.
- Be wary of goods advertised online, research the company and read reviews before you click to buy.
- Facebook Marketplace is a great way to buy and sell locally. Be cautious when buying an item that you haven’t seen in person – the seller may be using a fake profile. Buying this way is high risk.
Chris Ainsley, Head of Fraud Risk Management at the bank, said: ‘£5 million is a staggering amount to have been taken from our customers in just five UK regions and placed into the criminal underworld.
‘When we scale that up to all residents and all regions around the UK, it’s quickly evident what a scourge on society fraud and scams still are.
‘Scams are evolving at breakneck speed, so it remains incredibly important to stay vigilant for those tell-tale signs.’
The bank did not reveal how much of the money the customers were reimbursed for.
New regulations protecting customers came into effect in October last year, meaning they must be paid the money lost to scams in most cases, up to £85,000.
The money must have been sent in the UK from a personal account, micro-enterprise, or some charities.
Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk.
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