Reported account-hacking losses in the United Kingdom surged 417% — from £1.2 million to £6.3 million — in the financial year ending March 31, 2026, according to new figures from the City of London Police. The number of victims who reported financial losses rose from 226 to 2,325 in the same period. Cyber-dependent crime losses overall rose 90% to £14.3 million, while total reports across that category reached 64,608 (a 34% increase). The National Cyber Security Centre and policing bodies caution that the spike largely reflects improved reporting infrastructure rather than a proportional worsening of attacks.
The driver behind the surge in captured data is the January 2026 launch of Report Fraud, the UK government’s replacement for the long-criticized Action Fraud service. The new platform was built to “collect more useful information from victims and the private sector,” making it easier to spot patterns across cases. Ninety-two percent of the account-hacking cases with financial losses came in during the second half of the financial year — the months immediately following Report Fraud’s rollout — showing how much was previously invisible. The average loss per victim in cyber-dependent crimes rose to £220, up from £155.
The data is a reminder that crime statistics are partly a function of how easy it is to report — and that better tooling tends to reveal a larger true volume of harm than anyone assumed.