Over one in eight (12%) UK adults have fallen victim to a financial scam in the past year, equating to 6.2 million people, WEALTH has found.

The firm’s research revealed that the average amount lost to a scam was over £1,000, despite 72% of adults saying they were confident in their ability to identify a financial scam.

These findings also revealed that two in five (40%) scammed adults surveyed found it difficult to trust that any financial information is legitimate, while 27% said that scams had had a negative impact on their mental health.

Additionally, 24% now do not feel safe investing their money and 22% said they have had to change their plans for the future after losing money.

Director at WEALTH, Jonathan Watts-Lay, said: "Financial scamming is rife and it’s shocking that many people have lost money not just once, but multiple times to scams. People need to be on their guard as fraudsters use many convincing techniques to persuade their victims that they are genuine.

"Many of these scams look completely legitimate and are not easy to spot. People often get seduced by the promise of investment returns which are too good to be true."

Watts-Lay added that scammers often have "professional looking websites and literature" to make it hard to distinguish from the real thing.

WEALTH found that more than a third (34%) of those that had lost money to a scam in the past year had done so to two or more types of scam.

The most popular method, which scammed 27% of those surveyed, was a purchase scam, which involves the sale of fake products or goods online.

Other methods included investment scams (19%), family or friends scams (18%), bank account scams (18%) and tech support scams (15%).

More niche methods included pension scams (13%), which saw scammers make fake promises of guaranteed returns and gaining access to the victim’s pension, and tax refund scams (10%), which tricked victims into thinking they had a tax rebate and therefore led them to share personal details.

Watts-Lay concluded: "Unfortunately, the current strain on household finances could mean that some people are more vulnerable than ever and fraudsters can take advantage of this. Those approaching retirement could also be a key target as they could have access to relatively large sums of money. I urge everyone to never rush to make a decision when it comes to their money as anything that talks about time limited offers is likely to be a scam."

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