NEWS: Should Big Tech cover the UK’s £1.3bn fraud losses? Inside the future of scamming

FRAUD losses have continued to surge in the UK, with scammers stealing £1.3 billion in 2025.

Kathryn Westmore, UK Finance’s Director of Financial Crime and Interim Director of Fraud Policy, argues that social media companies should pay up.

On Episode 8 of ‘Collared’, AML Intelligence’s financial crime podcast, she outlines why tech giants should help to reimburse scam victims.

The episode also features Jim Lee, the Global Head of Capacity Building at the blockchain analytics and investigation firm Chainalysis.

Before joining Chainalysis, Lee headed up IRS-CI (Criminal Investigation) leading more than 3,000 employees and overseeing some of the largest investigations in the agency’s history and overseeing some of the largest investigations in the agency’s history.

In an in-depth interview, he outlines how the playbook has changed for fraudsters, who are rapidly adopting new technology such as AI. He also examines what the future of scamming might look like.

Episode 8 comes after last week’s ‘Collared’ looked at how police have fought back against the ‘Black Axe Gang’, one of the world’s most notorious crime groups. It also includes an in-depth explanation on how money mules, and why they are key money laundering enablers.

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