Fraud risk in 2026 – the year collaboration becomes more concrete

By Dave Rossi

Despite huge efforts to tackle fraud in 2025, the rate at which it is accelerating has left many UK companies struggling to manage this risk. Fraud tactics are being adapted with new technologies, and it is crossing borders. Fraud is now the most common offence in the UK, accounting for more than 40% of all reported crime.

Tackling this new wave of cybercrime will not be possible without greater collaboration across organizations, across sectors, and across industry bodies. In 2025, the conditions required for collaboration to become more concrete were put in place. The Stop Scams UK initiative, the failure to prevent fraud offence, and the Government’s digital ID scheme will mean that instead of being voluntary, fragmented or reactive, collaboration will become increasingly operationalised in 2026.

Here’s why:

Digital ID

Criminals are increasingly exploiting fragmented identity systems.The UK Government’s recently proposed national digital ID scheme promises to close these gaps by creating a verified, reusable identity that can be securely shared across public and private sectors. Yet uncertainty about its implementation has raised concerns. Systems that centralise data will change the risk profile, and many worry about further potential increases in fraud and surveillance.

Compromising these IDs will be a key focus for criminals. Determining whether this scheme will be successful, therefore, depends on whether collaboration is built into its core. Cross-sector intelligence sharing between lenders, technology providers, and the Government will be critical in ensuring it becomes a safeguard, with a ‘trust but verify’ stance likely to be a key focus in 2026.

Stop Scams UK

Not only are criminals exploiting fragmented identity systems, but also the gaps between different sectors. In 2025, Stop Scams UK launched an initiative with technology and telecom companies aligning with financial services providers to share intelligence, data and technology, marking a clear shift from isolated efforts to a unified front.

This real-time cross-industry collaboration has already seen early success stories, including the Blocked Sims project. Using shared intelligence, the project detects and disrupts fraudsters abusing Pay-As-You-Go UK mobiles to create fake online accounts. This is but one of many clear examples of how commitment to pooling strengths and resources across sectors is one of the most effective fraud defences. In future, the initiative hopes to expand this collaboration to additional sectors, government entities, and law enforcement to make the UK an even more challenging environment for fraud to take place in.

Failure to prevent fraud offence

The drive for greater collaboration will also grow within organizations themselves. The recently introduced failure to prevent fraud offence made large firms criminally liable for fraud unless they can prove that reasonable prevention measures were in place. This shifts fraud prevention from a specialist activity to something embedded across onboarding, payments, customer service, and broader operational processes.

Demonstrating compliance will rely on clear evidence trails and consistent coordination between teams. Collaboration must begin at the top, with targeted training and top-down messaging. The introduction of the failure to prevent fraud offence has pushed for significant change among larger organizations, and even in some firms outside the offence’s scope – illustrating that even those not criminally liable are proactively aligning their practices with emerging regulatory expectations.