Surge in UK savings lost to investment scams, with fake crypto thought to top the list

Banking industry data shows 629m was stolen in six months from fraud that included gold, wine and property

The amount of money lost to investment scams by UK consumers has leapt 55% in a year as cryptocurrency fraudsters intensify their efforts to cheat people out of their savings, data shows.

Official UK banking industry data shows that while the total amount stolen by fraudsters increased 3% to 629m in the first six months of this year compared with last year, investment scam losses surged, reaching 97.7m during the period - more than 500,000 a day.