More than £2.6billion has been stolen through investment fraud in the UK since the start of 2020, according to new research.

The figures, sourced by the Pensions Management Institute (PMI), show that between January 2020 and December 2023, there have been 98,525 victims of such scams. During this period criminals managed to steal the equivalent of nearly £13million every week.

Victims typically lost an average of £26,773 to these investment scams over the period.

Of the investment scams,…