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The UK government has launched its latest fraud strategy, setting out a three-year plan to combat what remains the most prevalent crime in the UK.
Published by the Home Office and outlined on GOV.UK, the Fraud Strategy 2026–2029 introduces a more coordinated, technology-driven approach to tackling fraud at scale.
With fraud accounting for a significant proportion of crime and costing the UK economy billions annually, the strategy signals a shift towards system-wide prevention, stronger enforcement, and improved victim support.
The strategy is built around three key pillars:
1. Disrupt
Focuses on stopping fraud at its source by targeting the infrastructure and methods used by criminals.
Key actions include:
A new Online Crime Centre will play a central role in identifying and disrupting fraud at scale.
2. Safeguard
Aims to better protect individuals and businesses from becoming victims.
This includes:
The goal is to reduce vulnerability by addressing the environments where fraud occurs most frequently.
3. Respond
Focuses on improving outcomes for victims and strengthening the justice response.
Key developments:
These measures aim to rebuild trust and ensure victims receive timely and effective support.
The government has committed £250 million over three years to support the strategy, reflecting the scale of the fraud threat.
A key theme is collaboration, with increased cooperation between:
This recognises that modern fraud is global, digital, and highly organised, requiring a coordinated response.
The strategy acknowledges that technology, particularly artificial intelligence, will play a defining role in the future of fraud.
AI will be used to:
However, the government also recognises that criminals are using the same technologies, increasing the complexity of the threat landscape.
The Fraud Strategy 2026–2029 highlights a clear shift towards a more proactive and coordinated approach to tackling fraud across the UK. However, it also reinforces that addressing fraud at scale requires more than strategy alone.
With fraud now operating across digital platforms, financial systems, and international networks, organisations must move beyond reactive responses and focus on building prevention, resilience, and strong system design into their operations from the outset.
For many, the challenge will not be understanding the strategy but effectively implementing it in a way that delivers real, measurable impact.
As a member of the AJC Fraud Team explains:
“Customers and banks are under siege from fraudsters, both physically and digitally. The criminals’ arsenal of weapons is growing more sophisticated at an exponential rate. The Fraud Strategy uses all the right words, but we cannot afford to lose momentum, nor waste energy arguing over which body takes precedence in any area. We need to build up from the foundations already established.
In particular, exchange of intelligence in real time is vital. Online platforms and telcos need to share information in order to spot the attempts by fraudsters to engage potential victims. Shared intelligence is also needed to drive proactive law enforcement work. The UN Global Fraud Summit in March demonstrates there is also focus and commitment at global level, so it is important to seize the moment.”
AJC also welcomes the views of other experts in the field. To add an external perspective, AJC sought commentary from Edward Cahill, author of the White Paper Advancing Scam Classification: A Novel Taxonomy, on whether the Home Office’s approach effectively addresses the concerns of the payment industry. His observations are included below.
As Edward Cahill highlights:
Disrupt: International memoranda of understanding and INTERPOL-led operations remain largely reactive in nature, addressing harm after it has occurred rather than enabling upstream prevention. The principal impediment, effective private-to-private data sharing, has regrettably been deferred to a further consultation process.
Crypto assets: The proliferation of offshore exchanges, mixing services, and stablecoins has significantly reduced the practical effectiveness of the UK’s licensing regime.
Awareness: Public awareness campaigns have demonstrated limited effectiveness in mitigating sophisticated forms of manipulation. Deepfake incidents, for example, often result in a temporary hesitation or superficial challenge, rather than being supported by robust real-time verification and due-diligence infrastructure.
Prosecutions: The figure of 3,631 successful prosecutions, when set against the millions of reported offences, excluding attempted fraud, casts the strategy’s capacity to address high-volume fraud in an unfavourable light.
Business Fraud: Although one in four businesses reports being a victim of fraud, mandatory reporting requirements remain absent, and substantive remedial measures are largely deferred until 2029, with e-invoicing cited as a principal intervention.
Timelines: A significant proportion of the proposed measures are scheduled for implementation in 2028–2029, by which point AI-enabled fraud is likely to have evolved beyond the foundational assumptions of the current strategy.
If you need fraud or cyber expertise, a small and agile consultancy like AJC may be the answer. Our experts are used to working with your existing teams to support on short term contracts or projects.
Learn more about AJC’s Fraud and Cyber Security services and how we support organisations in strengthening their fraud prevention frameworks.
Contact us on 020 7101 4861 or email info@ajollyconsulting.co.uk if you think we can help.
Sources:
Home Office (2026) Fraud Strategy 2026 to 2029: Disrupting crime, supporting economic resilience and delivering justice. Available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/fraud-strategy-2026-to-2029
Professional Security Magazine (2026) Fraud strategy launched. Available at: https://professionalsecurity.co.uk/news/government/fraud-strategy-launched-2/
CMS (2026) UK Fraud Strategy: overview and implications. Available at: https://cms.law/en/gbr/legal-updates/stop-what-should-organisations-think-of-the-new-uk-fraud-strategy
Cahill, E. (2026) Advancing Scam Classification: A Novel Taxonomy. Available at: https://edwardcahill.co.uk
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