One in Four UK Adults Lose Money to Online Scam Adverts, Revolut Report Finds

_{Photo credit: MMD Creative / Shutterstock.com}

One in four UK adults says they have lost money after clicking on a fraudulent online advert, according to new research commissioned by digital bank Revolut, as scam anxiety changes how consumers shop online.

The Clicking with Caution report, produced by Public First, estimates that around 13.5 million people in the UK have been left out of pocket after engaging with scam adverts. The findings are based on a nationally representative poll of 2,008 online UK adults, carried out between May 29 and June 1, 2026.

The report found that scam adverts are now a routine part of online life, with 51% of UK adults saying they often see adverts they suspect to be scams. Social media was identified as the most common place to see suspected scam adverts, cited by 65% of respondents.

More than a third of adults said they had spent less money online overall in the past 12 months because of scam adverts, while 68% had abandoned an online purchase that began with an advert because they feared it might be fraudulent. The report also found that 78% of UK adults say scam adverts make them less trusting of unfamiliar brands.

AI is making the problem even worse. 72% of respondents said AI makes scam adverts harder to identify, while 80% believe scam adverts using AI-generated images, videos, voices, or deepfakes have increased over the past year.

Oleskii Mukhin, general manager of financial crime at Revolut, said:

Scam ads no longer just rob individuals, they’re eroding the trust the entire digital economy is built on. Honest businesses lose customers, consumers lose confidence, and criminals walk away richer. Meanwhile, the platforms where these scams are born continue to profit from them. That can't hold. Stopping fraud at source has to become an obligation, not an option, and that means holding the platforms where these scams begin to account.