The annual cost of fraudulent activities in the UK has reached £193 billion ($283bn), nearly four times what it was in 2013, a new study shows.
The study which was published by the University of Portsmouth on Wednesday stated that business fraud accounted for nearly £144 billion while fraud against individuals had an approximate cost of £9.7 billion.
This marks a whopping 400 percent increase compared to the last estimate – made in 2013 by the now defunct National Fraud Authority – which put the cost at nearly £52 billion a year.
The study also reveals the staggering true cost of fraud in the UK – an average of more than £3,900 per adult in the UK with losses taking place at a rate of £6,000 per second.
Professor Mark Button, the report’s author, warned that nationwide fraud was now on an “industrial scale.”
This is while the report said the true scale of fraud in the country may still remain unknown.
“Despite a broadly conservative and…