Despite huge efforts to tackle fraud in 2025, the rate at which it is accelerating has left many companies lucky to simply keep pace. Fraud tactics are being adapted with new technologies. It’s crossing borders. And it’s now the most common offence in the UK, accounting for more than 40% of all reported crime.
Tackling this new wave of cybercrime won’t be possible without greater collaboration across organisations, across sectors, and across industry bodies. Dave Rossi, Managing Director at National Hunter, argues that 2025 has been a year of creating the conditions required for collaboration to become more concrete. The Stop Scams UK initiative, the Failure to Prevent Fraud Offence and the Digital ID scheme will mean that instead of being voluntary, fragmented or reactive, collaboration will become increasingly operationalised as we enter 2026.
Here’s why.
Digital ID
Criminals are increasingly exploiting fragmented identity systems. The Government’s recently proposed national Digital ID scheme promises to close these gaps by creating a verified, reusable identity that can be securely shared across public and private sectors. Yet, uncertainty about its implementation has raised concerns. Systems that centralise data will change the risk profile, and many worry about further potential increases in fraud and surveillance.
Compromising these IDs will be a key focus for criminals. Determining whether this scheme will be successful, therefore, depends on whether collaboration is built into its core. Cross-sector intelligence sharing between lenders, technology providers, and the government will be critical in ensuring it becomes a safeguard, with a ‘trust but verify’ stance likely to be a key focus in 2026.
Stop Scams UK
Not only are criminals exploiting fragmented identity systems, but also the gaps between different sectors. Earlier this year, Stop Scams UK launched an initiative with technology and telecom companies aligning with financial services providers to share intelligence, data and technology, marking a clear shift from isolated efforts to a unified front.
This real-time cross-industry collaboration has already seen early success stories, including the Blocked Sims project. Using shared intelligence, the project detects and disrupts fraudsters abusing Pay-As-You-Go UK mobiles to create fake online accounts.
This is but one of many clear examples of how commitment to pooling strengths and resources across sectors is one of the most effective fraud defences. In future, the initiative hopes to expand this collaboration to additional sectors, government entities and law enforcement to make the UK an even more challenging environment for fraud to take place in.
Failure to Prevent Fraud Offence
The drive for greater collaboration will also grow within organisations themselves. The recently introduced Failure to Prevent Fraud Offence made large firms criminally liable for fraud unless they can prove reasonable prevention measures were in place. This shifts fraud prevention from a specialist activity to something embedded across onboarding, payments, customer service, and broader operational processes.
Demonstrating compliance will rely on clear evidence trails and consistent coordination between teams. Collaboration must begin at the top, with targeted training and top-down messaging. The introduction of the Failure to Prevent Fraud Offence has pushed for significant change among larger organisations, and even in some firms outside the offence’s scope – illustrating that even those not criminally liable are proactively aligning their practices with emerging regulatory expectations.
Conclusion
Key progress in 2025 has positioned collaboration as the most effective defence against fraud. The Failure to Prevent Fraud Offence, Stop Scams UK initiative, and Digital ID scheme all signal a shift towards the shared intelligence, coordinated controls and collective responsibility needed across sectors and teams.
From simply making fraud prevention an increasingly team effort to strengthening identity proofing and authentication, and increasing investment and contributors to cross-industry data sharing, building on these foundations for collaboration will be at the core of fraud prevention in 2026.
