A survey of 1,884 UK scam targets found 7.2% who didn’t report blamed embarrassment. A former Dorset Police cybercrime detective says every report helps.
LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM, October 27, 2026 /EINPresswire.com/ — Embarrassment sits near the bottom of the reasons people give for not reporting a scam, according to a Heimdal survey of 1,884 UK adults targeted by a scam in the past 12 months.
Of those surveyed, 42.7% didn’t tell their bank, the police, or the website or app where the scam happened. The most common reason, given by 47.2%, was that they hadn’t lost anything, so it didn’t seem to matter.
Just 7.2% said they were embarrassed, fifth of the six reasons named.
More than a quarter (27.8%) didn’t think reporting would make a difference, and one in five (20.5%) didn’t know who to report it to. People could give more than one reason.
Almost a quarter (24.4%) told only family or friends, and 17.4% told no one at all. Women were more likely than men to keep it to family or friends, at 28.8% against 19.7%.
The picture was different for people who lost money. Of those, 11.7% didn’t tell their bank, the police, or the platform, against 49.9% of people who lost nothing.
“What I want to call out, as probably the most important piece of this report, is that four in 10 people don’t report a scam,” said Adam Pilton, cybersecurity advisor at Heimdal Security and former cybercrime Detective Sergeant with Dorset Police.
“During my time in the police, investigating cybercrime, I found time and time again that intelligence was the lifeblood of my investigations. When it comes to cybercrime investigations, you often have very little information to go off.
“That is why the reports from other people were impactful. Maybe the same telephone number or email address had been used across multiple separate scams. All of this feeds into the investigations and enables law enforcement to identify and bring to justice those involved in these crimes.”
The National Cyber Security Centre says that as of September 2026 it had received more than 59.6 million scam reports, and about 264,000 scams had been taken down across 466,300 web addresses.
Who lost money
Adults aged 25 to 34 lost money most often. Among 25 to 34s targeted by a scam, 35.7% lost money, more than five times the rate for over-65s (6.8%).
Calls pretending to be a bank, the police, or the government reached 60.5% of 18 to 24s who were targeted, against 36.0% of over-65s.
People in full-time work also lost money more often than everyone else (23.7% against 11.9%), a gap that held once age was taken into account.
“This report caught me by surprise, particularly when I looked at who lost the money,” said Pilton.
“The highest percentage of individuals that lost money were those aged between 25 to 34. But maybe more surprisingly, the lowest were those over 65 years in age. Only 6.8% of that category had lost money to a scam.
“I find this surprising due to the cases that I’ve dealt with and where the proportion of money is in our society.”
In London, 27.0% of people targeted by a scam lost money, against 16.8% across the rest of the UK.
Where to report a scam
– In England, Wales, and Northern Ireland, report fraud to Report Fraud at reportfraud.police.uk or on 0300 123 2040
– In Scotland, call Police Scotland on 101
– If you’ve lost money, contact your bank straight away, or call 159
– If you get an unexpected call about your money, hang up and call 159 to reach your bank
– Forward scam texts to 7726
– Forward scam emails to report@phishing.gov.uk
The full report is at https://heimdalsecurity.com/blog/uk-scam-report-gap
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About the survey
Heimdal commissioned the survey and Pollfish ran it. Pollfish surveyed 1,884 UK adults who said someone had tried to scam them in the past 12 months, with fieldwork from 26 August to 4 October 2026. Heimdal commissioned 2,000 responses, but Pollfish didn’t fill the London and East of England quotas, which leaves 1,884. Regional quotas were equal across six region groups, and age and gender quotas matched the UK population.
All figures except regional ones are weighted to ONS mid-2025 adult populations across 12 regions. The effective sample size is 1,754 and the margin of error is up to ±2.3 points for figures based on all respondents.
Regional figures are unweighted. Each region is compared with the rest of the UK, with differences tested at 95% confidence and checked for age effects. The base for London is 307.
Pollfish is an app-based panel, which is worth bearing in mind for the age findings.
The survey question named “Action Fraud or the police”. Report Fraud replaced Action Fraud in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland on 4 December 2025, within the 12-month period respondents were asked about.
Data is available on request.
Spokesperson
Adam Pilton is available for interview, including broadcast. He spent 15 years in policing, including as a cybercrime Detective Sergeant with Dorset Police, and is now cybersecurity advisor at Heimdal.
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About Heimdal
Heimdal is a global cybersecurity provider delivering a unified security and compliance platform that brings together prevention, detection, and response across endpoint, identity, email, network, and access security.
With more than 12 fully integrated products protecting over 4 million endpoints, Heimdal helps enterprises and MSP partners reduce risk, strengthen operational resilience, and consolidate their security stack.
Trusted by more than 20,000 organizations and 2,000 MSPs in more than 40 countries, Heimdal’s platform helps prevent threats, detect breaches, and automate response without the need for a SIEM or multiple point solutions.
Danny Mitchell
Heimdal Security
+44 7999 498241
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