The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) said that it had received nearly 4,500 reports of “fake FCA scams” during the first half of 2025. While the number of reports of these scams has declined over the last two years, data from the regulator shows that the number of people tricked into turning over money has jumped during the same time frame. Between January and the end of June of 2023, the FCA received 6,274 reports, with 275 people handing over money. During the first six months of the following year, the authority got 5,505 reports, with 460 victims. And this year, the FCA logged 4,465 reports and 480 victims. Two-thirds of the reports came from people aged 56 years or older. According to the FCA, one of the most common scams involve fraudsters claiming that the regulator has recovered money from a crypto wallet opened illegally in the victim’s name. There are also “pig butchering” scams, in which fraudsters “fatten up” a victim by establishing a connection, often a romantic one, and then conducting a long-term investment scam. Once the victim has lost money, scammers attempt to defraud victims a second time by pretending to be the FCA aiming to help them to “recover” the money.