Someone pretending to be your child, a charity, your solicitor, a recovery agent — or you. How UK impersonation fraud works, how to check, and what to do first.
Impersonation fraud is one crime wearing many costumes. Whoever the caller claims to be, the shape is the same: contact you did not expect, a reason to act before you can check, and a request to move money, share a code or hand over details. The Crime Survey for England and Wales estimated 4.5 million fraud incidents affecting 3.8 million adults in the year ending March 2026. Fraud accounted for about 47% of the survey's 9.6 million headline-crime incidents; that is a survey comparison, not a share of police-recorded crime and not a UK-wide figure. Our UK scam statistics set out where those Office for National Statistics figures come from.
Got a message or call you are unsure about? Paste it into our free AI scam checker for an automated second opinion. It is an automated second opinion, not a verdict, and it does not replace checking a firm or a seller for yourself.
Memorising every scam is a losing game — the brands change weekly. Learning the structure underneath is not, which is why our guide to spotting and avoiding UK consumer scams is the one to read if nothing below matches your situation exactly. The response that works everywhere is Take Five: stop before parting with money or information, challenge whether it could be fake, and protect yourself by verifying through contact details you found independently.
Two details do most of the work. First, some fraudsters are perfectly willing to hand you a number for a later callback — their own — so the safe test is not whether they let you call back. It is whether you can end the contact completely and then verify through a phone number, app or account you obtained independently. Second, no genuine bank employee will ask you to disclose or read out a full PIN, full password or one-time banking or security code. Enter a code only in the official app or site, for an action you initiated, understand and can match to the code message; never do it at an unexpected caller's direction — a criminal can talk you through a genuine app while dictating the action you are approving. For another support service, verify the request independently and follow the warning in the code message.
The fastest way into the right guide is to name the costume.
Identity fraud is the quietest entry here, because the criminal arranges for the paperwork to go somewhere you do not control. People may discover identity fraud through a refused application, an unfamiliar debt or a credit search they do not recognise, sometimes months later. Cifas reported a record 444,993 cases filed to the National Fraud Database in 2025 in its Fraudscape 2026 report, with identity fraud accounting for more than 242,000 of them.
Property fraud can run for months rather than minutes, and it splits in two. In the first, a criminal poses as an owner to sell or mortgage a property, and the risk is higher where a home is rented out, empty, mortgage-free or owned from abroad. In England and Wales, HM Land Registry's free Property Alert service emails you when certain applications or searches are received against a monitored title, and a title restriction can require a conveyancer to certify that an application really came from the owner — our guide to deed fraud walks through both. That HM Land Registry guidance covers England and Wales only: Scotland uses Registers of Scotland and Northern Ireland uses Land & Property Services.
In the second, the transaction is genuine and the email is not, with completion money redirected by a late change of bank details. That is why conveyancing fraud is best defeated at the start: get the firm's details early and verify any change by a trusted phone number or in person, never by email alone.
People who lose money to fraud may well be targeted again and are at increased risk — by the same group under a new name, or by an operation that bought their details. It is a deliberate business model, not a reflection on the person targeted, and the second approach is often more convincing because the caller already knows what happened. The warning signs are in our recovery-scam guide.
Be precise about which bodies never charge. Your bank, the police, Report Fraud in England, Wales or Northern Ireland, Police Scotland on 101 in Scotland, and the Financial Ombudsman Service do not demand a fee, a tax or a 'release charge' to hand back money that is already yours. Solicitors and paid claims services are different: they may legitimately charge disclosed professional fees for work you have agreed to. So the warning sign is not the word 'fee' — it is an unexpected upfront payment demanded before you see any money.
If money has moved, contact your bank immediately and say it was a scam, then work through the payment, account and identity steps in our scam recovery checklist. Reporting promptly matters more than reporting perfectly.
Tell your bank first if money or card details are involved. Dial 159 yourself to reach a participating bank, or use the number on your card. Your provider sets the price of a 159 call, so check its current charges. Report the fraud to Report Fraud (formerly Action Fraud) at reportfraud.police.uk or 0300 123 2040 in England, Wales or Northern Ireland, or to Police Scotland on 101 in Scotland. Forward a suspicious text message to 7726 free of charge, and a suspicious email to report@phishing.gov.uk. Report a fraudulent collection or appeal to Report Fraud in England, Wales or Northern Ireland, or Police Scotland on 101 in Scotland. If the concern involves an existing registered charity, also raise it with the relevant charity regulator. Report suspected property fraud in England and Wales to HM Land Registry at reportafraud@landregistry.gov.uk. For consumer-rights help, use the service for your nation: Citizens Advice in England and Wales on 0808 223 1133, Advice Direct Scotland in Scotland on 0808 800 9060, or Consumerline in Northern Ireland on 0300 123 6262. Each of those services is also the route into Trading Standards for a rogue trader.
Learn how scammers impersonate consumer protection websites to steal money and data. This guide helps you spot fake beatthescam.com clones and stay safe.
Criminals alter conveyancing emails and redirect completion money. Establish bank details early and verify any change through a trusted channel.
Criminals may impersonate an owner to sell or mortgage a property. HM Land Registry offers alerts and title restrictions in England and Wales.
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Do not send anything, and do not use the new number to decide. Call the person on the number you already have saved, or video call them through an account you know. A broken or lost phone is the standard excuse for avoiding a live call, because a call would expose the impersonation. If you have already paid, ring your bank using the number on your card and report it as a scam.
Ask for the charity's registration number and check it yourself. Where an appeal claims to represent a registered charity, verify its name and number on the appropriate register. In England and Wales, some small, excepted or exempt charities will not appear, so absence alone is not proof; verify the organisation and payment route independently. The registers are the Charity Commission for England and Wales, OSCR in Scotland and CCNI in Northern Ireland, depending on where the appeal says it is registered. Then donate through the charity's own website, typed in yourself, rather than through a link or a transfer to an individual. Pressure to give before a deadline is a warning sign.
Because the code is not for you. Sharing it completes a sign-up or login that the other person triggered against your telephone number. The classic personal Google Voice number-linking scam generally concerns an eligible US number. If a UK mobile receives a Google verification code, do not assume it proves a Voice-number link; it may relate to another Google account action. Read the code message and never share it. Where a number is linked, sharing the code can let someone use a service associated with your number, though it does not transfer your mobile service. Treat 'read me the code to prove you are real' as the scam itself. If the message was a Google Voice code, use Google's official process to disconnect or reclaim your telephone number from any Voice account you do not control. Change your Google password only if you also disclosed credentials or see signs that your own Google account was compromised. For any other account, change that account's password, turn on two-step verification and review recent security activity.
It is the UK mechanism for flagging your details in the National Fraud Database, a Cifas service, so organisations run extra identity checks before opening credit or accounts in your name. It is worth considering if your identity documents or personal data have been exposed. It is not credit monitoring, though, so also check your files with Experian, Equifax and TransUnion, and with Crediva, which MoneyHelper also lists as offering a free statutory report.