Tech support scams in the UK: what the published figures show, and how to protect yourself

Tech support scams are usually described through stories: the call from “Microsoft”, the pop-up that will not close, the stranger’s cursor moving across the screen. The stories are useful. But if you are helping a parent, or trying to judge how worried to be, it also helps to know what the published numbers say, and what they cannot say.

This guide gathers the latest figures on these scams in the UK. Every figure was checked at its source on 3 November 2026, and each comes with its period, its publisher and a link. They are national figures from the ONS, UK Finance and Ofcom, not JorTech’s. We are a repair business, not a statistics office, and we publish no figures of our own about scams.

If you want the warning signs, not the numbers, start with how to spot a tech support scam.

First, what the figures are counting

The police have a recording category for these scams: computer software service fraud. The ONS defines it as a fraud that “involves the victim being contacted and told that there is a problem with their computer, which can be fixed for a fee. No fix actually occurs.” (ONS user guide to crime statistics, last revised 23 July 2026.)

Each source draws its lines differently, though:

• The crime survey folds these scams into a wider group, consumer and retail fraud, which the ONS says “includes bogus callers, ticketing fraud, phone scams, and computer software service fraud”.
• The police figures count computer software service fraud on its own, but only the cases people report.
• UK Finance, which publishes the banks’ figures, has no tech support category. The nearest is “impersonation: other”, which also covers callers posing as utility companies and government departments.
• Ofcom surveys people about the suspicious calls and texts they receive.

There is no single number for tech support scams in the UK, and we have not made one up. Each figure below stands on its own.

What the national crime survey shows

The Crime Survey for England and Wales asks people aged 16 and over about crimes they have experienced, whether or not they told the police. The latest ONS bulletin, covering the year ending June 2026, was published on 22 October 2026. It estimates:

• 4.5 million incidents of fraud, an 11% increase on the year ending June 2025 (4.1 million). The ONS puts the rise down to a 13% increase in bank and credit account fraud, to 2.8 million incidents.
• 1,114,000 incidents of consumer and retail fraud, the group that includes computer software service fraud (appendix table A1a).
• 817,000 incidents of computer misuse, a 23% increase on 663,000 the year before, which the ONS attributes to a 29% increase in unauthorised access to personal information, to 689,000 incidents.

The ONS also shows who is affected. In its fraud and computer misuse tables for the year ending March 2026, also released on 22 October 2026, 7.8% of adults aged 16 and over were victims of fraud at least once; for people aged 75 and over, the figure was 6.0% (table 1).

Two things are worth keeping in mind. Consumer and retail fraud is a wide group, so the 1,114,000 figure covers far more than tech support scams. And these survey figures cover England and Wales only.

What gets reported to the police

Reports now go to Report Fraud, which the ONS describes as the national cybercrime and fraud reporting system “launched by the City of London Police on 4 December 2025”. It replaced Action Fraud. The ONS publishes what Report Fraud records in table C3 of the same appendix tables, published on 22 October 2026.

In England and Wales, Report Fraud recorded 4,696 offences of computer software service fraud between July 2025 and June 2026, against 4,577 in the twelve months before. For scale, the same table shows 348,944 fraud offences of all kinds reported to Report Fraud directly over the same period.

Read these with care. They are official statistics rather than accredited ones, the move from Action Fraud to Report Fraud changed how offences are recorded, and the ONS says recorded fraud and computer misuse “are not reliable measures of overall crime levels or trends because many incidents are not reported”. The count covers the scams people reported, not every scam that happened.

What the banks see

UK Finance’s Annual Fraud Report 2026, published on 15 June 2026, draws on figures from banks and payment service providers and covers 2025. It reports £1.28 billion stolen through payment fraud in 2025, an increase of four per cent.

There is no separate figure for tech support scams. The closest category is impersonation: other. In UK Finance’s words, “criminals claim to represent an organisation such as a utility company, communications service provider or government department”, and “sometimes the criminal requests remote access to the victim’s computer as part of the scam, claiming that they need to help ‘fix’ a problem”. For 2025 it records:

• Impersonation: other: 18,435 cases and £36.9 million lost, down 7% and 1% on 2024.
• Impersonation of police or bank staff: 6,016 cases and £55.5 million lost, down 23% and 18%.

For both categories these are the lowest case and loss totals since UK Finance’s comparable figures began in 2020, and it says 80% of the losses in each were returned to victims in 2025. Separately, in an analysis of a subset of authorised push payment cases, UK Finance found that 17% of cases in 2025 were enabled by telecommunications, and that these, usually higher-value cases such as impersonation scams, accounted for 28% of losses.

What people are receiving

Ofcom, the regulator for telecoms and online services, surveyed 2,227 UK adults aged 16 and over online on 4 and 5 February 2026, and published the data tables on 30 March 2026. Two findings matter here:

• 23% of people who use a landline or mobile said they had received a suspicious live voice call in the previous three months. Ofcom’s example of such a call was one “telling you there is a problem with your internet service”.
• 71% of mobile users said they had never heard of 7726, or of any other number, for reporting a suspicious text or call.

That second figure is the easiest on this page to change: the numbers below take a minute to learn.

What Microsoft’s research can and cannot tell us

Microsoft’s most recent global survey of tech support scams, carried out by YouGov in April and May 2021 and published in July 2021, covers 16 countries and includes a UK snapshot. We have not quoted it: the fieldwork is more than five years old, and the report says any reproduction of its figures must be approved by YouGov and Microsoft.

What Microsoft says today is more useful anyway. Its current guidance says that Microsoft and other legitimate tech companies will never cold call you to tell you there is a problem with your device, and that unless you contact Microsoft first, it will not call you to offer tech support. Apple’s guidance, published on 22 June 2026, is just as plain: “If you get an unsolicited or suspicious phone call from someone claiming to be from Apple or Apple Support, just hang up.”

How to report it

Each of these was checked on 3 November 2026, against the organisation’s own site or the government pages that list it.

Scam texts and calls: 7726. Forward a scam text to 7726. It is free, and your mobile provider can investigate and block the sender. To report a scam call, copy the caller’s number from your recent calls and send it in a text to 7726. Messages in apps such as WhatsApp cannot usually be forwarded to 7726, so use the app’s own tools to block and report them. (Ofcom)

An unexpected call about your money: 159. 159 connects you safely and directly to your bank when you get an unexpected call about a financial matter. It is run by Stop Scams UK, a not-for-profit body led by its member businesses; phone companies carry the calls and the banks answer them. Stop Scams UK says 159 now connects customers of more than 99% of the UK’s retail bank current accounts, and that it cannot be spoofed. The banks taking part are listed on its 159 page, among them Barclays, HSBC, Lloyds Bank, Nationwide, NatWest, Santander and TSB, and app banks such as Monzo, Revolut and Starling. If yours is not listed, use the number on the back of your card.

Report Fraud: 0300 123 2040, or reportfraud.police.uk. Report Fraud is the national service for reporting fraud and cyber crime in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, and you receive a police crime reference number when you report. In Scotland, report fraud to Police Scotland on 101. (GOV.UK, nidirect)

Your bank, straight away, if money or bank details were involved. Ofcom’s advice is to call the number on the back of your card, use your bank’s website or app, or call 159 if your bank supports it. Cumbria Police advise ringing from a different phone to the one the scammer called, waiting at least five minutes, and making sure you can hear a dialling tone first, because there have been cases of fraudsters keeping the line open after a victim has hung up.

Scam emails: report@phishing.gov.uk. Forward a suspicious email there and the National Cyber Security Centre will investigate it (GOV.UK). If the caller claimed to be from Microsoft, Microsoft also takes reports at microsoft.com/reportascam.

Danger or distress. If you or someone else is in immediate danger, call 999. For confidential support after a scam, Ofcom points to Citizens Advice on 0808 223 1133 (Monday to Friday, 8am to 6pm) or, in Scotland, Advice Direct Scotland on 0808 164 6000.

Protecting yourself and the people you look out for

The warning signs, and the one rule that defeats these scams, are in how to spot a tech support scam. What a genuine, approved session looks like is in what a remote support session actually looks like. What the figures above add is a short list of habits:

1. Keep the numbers where they will be needed. Most mobile users in Ofcom’s survey had never heard of 7726. Print the scam call card and leave it by the phone of anyone you look out for.
2. Call back only on a number you found yourself. Ofcom’s advice is to use a number from the organisation’s official website or your account statement, not the number the caller gave you.
3. Treat call warnings as a help, not a guarantee. Ofcom says phones and apps can warn when a call looks like spam or a possible scam, but that these warnings are not always right.
4. Report what you receive. A text forwarded to 7726 lets your mobile provider investigate and block the sender, and reports to Report Fraud are what the police figures above are built from.
5. Agree who gets the first call. Microsoft suggests ringing a trusted advisor or family member if you are worried your device may actually have a problem. Decide now whose number that is.

If a call has left you worried about a computer

If someone has already been into a computer, the first steps are in how to spot a tech support scam, and they come before anything else. After that, the machine needs going over before it is trusted with anything important again: Microsoft warns that while these scammers pretend to fix a computer, they are really stealing information or installing malware.

We can do that in person across Leeds, West Yorkshire, Harrogate, Knaresborough and York, or over a secure remote link anywhere in the UK. Every remote session follows one rule: we connect only when you contacted us first. If someone rings out of the blue claiming to be JorTech and asks to connect to your computer, it is not us. Hang up.

Method and sources

We used the latest release of each source. Figures are given as the publisher gives them, with the publisher’s own period and area: ONS figures cover England and Wales, while UK Finance and Ofcom figures cover the UK. Figures from different sources are never added together or combined into a new statistic. The ONS’s next crime figures are due on 28 January 2027.

1. ONS, Crime in England and Wales: year ending June 2026, released 22 October 2026. Checked 3 November 2026.
2. ONS, Crime in England and Wales: appendix tables, year ending June 2026 edition, tables A1a and C3, released 22 October 2026. Checked 3 November 2026.
3. ONS, Fraud and computer misuse in England and Wales: appendix tables, year ending March 2026, table 1, released 22 October 2026. Checked 3 November 2026.
4. ONS, User guide to crime statistics for England and Wales, last revised 23 July 2026. Checked 3 November 2026.
5. UK Finance, Annual Fraud Report 2026, published 15 June 2026, pages 12, 13, 34, 43 and 44. Checked 3 November 2026.
6. Ofcom, Experiences of suspicious calls, texts and app messages: data tables 2026, published 30 March 2026, tables 104 and 181, with its technical report. Checked 3 November 2026.
7. Ofcom, What to do about a scam call, text or message, published 15 July 2026, last updated 24 August 2026. Checked 3 November 2026.
8. GOV.UK, Stop! Think Fraud: reporting fraud. Checked 3 November 2026.
9. GOV.UK, Avoid and report internet scams and phishing. Checked 3 November 2026.
10. nidirect, Reporting a scam. Checked 3 November 2026.
11. Report Fraud, reportfraud.police.uk. Its site turned away our automated check on 3 November 2026, so its number and coverage were confirmed that day against sources 7 to 10.
12. Stop Scams UK, 159 phone number and who we are. Checked 3 November 2026.
13. Microsoft, Protect yourself from online scams and attacks. Checked 3 November 2026.
14. Microsoft, Tech support scams adapt and persist in 2021, published 21 July 2021, and the research report it links to. Checked 3 November 2026; figures not reproduced, for the reasons above.
15. Apple, Recognise and avoid social engineering schemes including phishing messages, phony support calls and other scams, published 22 June 2026. Checked 3 November 2026.
16. Cumbria Constabulary, Police step up warnings on phone fraud ahead of Christmas, 8 December 2025. Checked 3 November 2026.