Identity Fraud Drives 59% of UK Fraud-Risk Cases, Cifas Says

Cifas, the UK fraud prevention service, compiles reports through the National Fraud Database, or NFD, to track suspected fraudulent conduct affecting businesses and consumers. Identity fraud typically involves the misuse of another person’s details to obtain products or services. Its prevalence matters because it exposes individuals to financial and reputational harm while raising customer-verification, compliance and loss-prevention costs for financial institutions and other companies.

The NFD recorded more than 220,000 fraud-risk cases in the first six months of 2026, according to the latest Cifas data. Identity fraud accounted for 59% of the total, or nearly three in every five reports, making it the largest category in the database. Based on the reported minimum total, that share represents more than 129,000 cases, underscoring the continued prominence of stolen or misused identity details in the UK fraud landscape.