GSE explores alarming rise in phone and email scams

The Global Signal Exchange (GSE) new research reports that more than seven in 10 UK adults (71%) say they have received suspected scam emails or texts, peaking at 88% for under the 25s and the experience of scams across the board is on the rise compared to this time last year.

Types of attempted scams

GSE reports that we live in a time when around half the population say they predominantly go online to do their everyday banking, shopping, holiday booking, music listening and film entertainment – the type of attempted scams experienced by people across the UK spans:

• Home delivery scams (24%)
• HMRC payment scams (20%)
• Bank scams (20%)
• Online payment scam queries (19%)
• Prize and lottery scams (18%)
• Investment scams (16%)
• Employment scams (15%)
• Romance scams (13%)
• Cryptocurrency scams (13%)
• Charity scams (12%)

Young people are most vulnerable to the online scammers, GSE states that the under 25 age group were most likely to say they have experienced suspected employment scams (23%), online payment scam queries (23%), prize lottery scams (21%) and romance scams (15%).

Those people aged 25-34 are most likely to say they have experienced attempted bank scams (24%), fine scams (20%), attempted investment scams (20%) and charity scams (17%).

UK online scam activity on the rise in 2025

Furthermore, the new poll of a nationally representative sample of 2,000 adults for The Global Signal Exchange reveals that the regularity of suspected scam experiences by text and email is on the rise in the UK, compared to a year ago.

This year, people say they have experienced a greater number of suspected scams, relating to:

• Home delivery (31%)
• Online payment queries (27%)
• Bank scams (24%)
• Investment scams (23%)
• Romance scams (17%)

“Bigger, faster and smarter”

Emily Taylor, CEO, Oxford Information Labs and Co-Founder, Global Signal Exchange commented: “Online scams are so much more than an annoyance or an inconvenience.

“We are actually at a seismic tipping-point where the scale, frequency and human impact of scams on people is almost out of control – and it’s becoming something far too big for individual brands, law enforcement agencies or even national governments to deal with on their own.

“It is time for organisations to work together and to work bigger, faster and smarter to beat the scammers at their own game and that is the reason why we launched the Global Signal Exchange earlier this year, supported by our co-founding partners Google and the Global Anti-Scam Alliance (GASA),” she concluded.

Protecting consumers

Powered by UK-based Oxford Information Labs (OXIL), The non-profit Global Signal Exchange (GSE) is the world’s first global, multi-stakeholder and cross-sector clearing house for sharing abuse data and related information (often called ‘signals’).

Tracking more than 350,000,000 threat signals worldwide and in real-time, the Global Signal Exchange states that it enables accredited, member organisations to work together in sharing threat data and harness the imperatives of speed and scale to stop online scams, fraud and abuse faster – making them less effective and less profitable.

Google, Meta and Microsoft have joined the GSE, followed by 30 other international organisations, allowing member organisations to tackle online scams, fraud and abuse with unprecedented pace, software capabilities and scale. 

“We are stronger together”

Taylor later added: “Turning the tables on the scammers is achievable but it involves businesses, governments and enforcement agencies to work much more closely together.

“We warmly welcome Microsoft and Meta to the Global Signal Exchange and we are excited by the significant contribution they will make in helping us all to change the narrative on crime, fraud and abuse.

“The level of global support for the Global Signal Exchange signifies a step-change in the fight against online crime, as we facilitate a new culture of co-operation and data sharing,” she continued.

“A great deal has been achieved in a very short time, but more needs to be done and we invite anyone with a legitimate interest in acting against online scams to join us.

Taylor concluded: “Together we are stronger and together we can be the change that consumers and businesses need.”

The human impact of online scams

GSE highlights that its latest consumer research also revealed that for almost two thirds of UK adults (63%), the experience of attempted scams has had an adverse impact on people’s wellbeing, their relationships with other people and the way they use their phone, tablet or device as a result.

For example:

• Of those impacted by attempted scams, 41% say they now avoid picking up the phone to numbers they don’t recognise, with 14% saying they are now less confident doing things online and 11% saying they spend less time online and on social media
• Across the UK, anxiety and sleepless nights were a consequence of attempted scams for 13% of survey respondents, whilst for one in 10 it knocked their own self-esteem – 10% saying they felt ashamed or blamed themselves
• A further 10% said they suffered the wellbeing impact of being unable to talk about it – and 3% even said a scam experience had destroyed a relationship with their partner or a loved one
• Nationally, 11% of respondents said that since a suspected scam experience, they have been rude to people they thought were scammers that weren’t – and 6% have missed mortgage or bill payments because they wrongly assumed it might be a scam

UK trends part of a seismic global problem

Supporting the Global Signal Exchange’s new UK consumer research, data from International Partner and GSE Co-Founder The Global Anti-Scam Alliance (GASA) reveals that UK consumer experiences are part of a global problem.

For example, GASA’s global report for 2024 revealed that phone calls and text/SMS messages remained the primary methods through which scammers operate.

GASA’s 2025 consumer research in Germany revealed that 84% of scam attempts the last 12 months occurred on platforms that have a Direct Message function.

GASA’s new Thailand research also revealed that nearly three-quarters of online abuse attacks (73%) happened through platforms with direct messaging.