When fraudulent actors start posing as the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) itself, you know the scam problem has entered a new phase.
The UK’s chief financial regulator confirmed this week that it has already received nearly 5,000 reports of impersonation scams in the first half of 2025, with almost 500 victims tricked into handing over money.
The tactics range from fake claims that the FCA has recovered crypto wallets, bogus county court judgements demanding payment, and even “pig butchering” schemes in which criminals pose as the regulator after grooming victims through romance scams.
As Steve Smart, joint executive director of enforcement and market oversight at the FCA, said: “Fraudsters are ruthless. They attempt to steal money from innocent victims by impersonating the FCA. We will never ask you to transfer money to us or for sensitive banking information such as account PINs and passwords”.
But the rise in fake FCA scams is not just another fraud statistic. It is a mirror held up to Britain’s fragile fraud response, exposing tensions between regulators, firms, insurers and government about how to keep pace with a threat that is evolving faster than the defences designed to stop it.
A crisis that isn’t going anywhere
Fraud is now the UK’s most common crime. Official figures show it accounted for over 40 per cent of offences in England and Wales last year, and fraud losses topped £1.17bn in 2024, up 12 per cent on the year before.
Yet enforcement remains patchy and much of the fraud originates overseas, with scams often linked to organised crime groups and, increasingly, human trafficking operations that force people into carrying out online fraud.
Against this backdrop, the FCA’s warning is less a bolt from the blue than another reminder of how stretched the system has become.
Criminals are not only targeting vulnerable consumers, with two-thirds of the regulator’s scam reports involving people over 56, but are weaponising the very institutions designed to protect them.
That creates a fierce twist: in an attempt to regain lost trust in a system riddled with scams, fraudsters are exploiting the very symbol of trust itself.
Compliance under pressure
For companies, the FCA warning lands in the broader debate about whether the industry is doing enough to embed consumer protection at its core.
Adam Moore, head of compliance at Creditspring, said: “Fraud is an unfortunate reality in consumer finance, and new tactics are emerging every day that target the most vulnerable. The news that scammers are now impersonating the FCA is especially concerning, given the vital role the regulator plays in building trust and protecting consumers”.
Moore argued that financial services firms must take a more proactive approach: “All consumer finance providers have a responsibility to put customer protection at the heart of everything they do. That means involving compliance early in product development so safeguards are embedded from the outset”.
However, he cautions, firms cannot solve the problem alone. Therefore, collaboration across industries, as seen in Australia, and vital government action could be crucial in disrupting international crime organisations that are to blame.
Insurers in the hot seat
This surge in impersonation scams also has implications for insurers, particularly those providing cyber and financial crime cover.
While demand for personal cyber insurance remains modest in the UK compared to the US, the rise of scams that blur the line between fraud and social engineering is pushing insurers to adapt.
Policy wording remains a battleground, too. Many insurers distinguish between theft and “authorised push payments” – transfers that customers willingly, if under duress, authorise.
This leaves scope for disputes when victims insist they were manipulated into moving funds.
Commercial clients face similar challenges, with inconsistencies between policies over whether recovery scams and impersonation fall within scope.
At the same time, insurers are increasingly moving “upstream” into fraud prevention, funding awareness campaigns and embedding detection tools.
It is implicit that paying out after the fact can’t solve a crime problem that is expanding faster than anyone can underwrite.
The bigger picture
The FCA’s figures follow 10,379 impersonation scam reports in 2024, suggesting 2025 could set another record year.
With fraud now rife in almost every layer of consumer and business activity, the regulator’s warning is both a public service announcement and a call to arms.
As Moore said: “Fraud now accounts for over 40 per cent of offences… much of it linked to international criminal organisations. Without stronger government action to tackle those networks, firms and consumers will remain caught in the middle”.
For policymakers, regulators and insurers, the challenge will be how to get ahead of this kind of fraud, when the bad actors are already pretending to be you.