Half of UK adults have or know someone who has experienced a financial scam attempt in the last 12 months, according to new research from Canada Life.

It reckons 3.6 million people have fallen victim to a scam.

The average amount lost to scams was £4,715 per person, or £17 billion as a nation, according to the survey.

More than two in five victims - 43% - got all their money back, but more than a quarter - 26% -  failed to recover any of their stolen funds.

The top three financial scam types are tax or debt collection (32%), advance fee scam (25%) such as when someone tells you you’re inheriting a sum of money that requires you to pay an upfront fee or provide your bank details, and “hello mum” scams (23%) when a scammer poses as a child or grandchild requesting an urgent bill or payment to be made.

Most people (40%) have been targeted through email, text, or voicemail - otherwise known as phishing, smishing or vishing.

Julia Peake, tax and estate planning specialist at Canada Life, said: “Criminals and scammers are opportunistic and play on insecurities, family connections and fear, taking advantage of crises and market disruptions both home or around the world, and the number of people being targeted seems to be going up.”

She said that with the development of AI and fake adverts, the range of communication and types of financial scams are becoming ever more intrusive and sophisticated.

The findings showed that those who are aged 55 or over are more likely to have been targeted (48%) in a scam attempt but are less likely to have been a victim and lost money (9%) than younger demographics.

A greater proportion of young people (in the 18–34 bracket) have personally fallen victim to a financial scam (18%) than those in an older age group.

Of those who experienced a scam attempt, 7% said it was via AI. Two in three (67%) UK adults agreed that AI will make financial scams more sophisticated, while half (48%) believe AI will make it more likely that they would fall for a financial scam.

Three in ten (30%) didn’t contact anybody after experiencing a financial scam attempt, rising to 38% among those aged 55 or over. For those that did seek support, the most common source approached were the victim’s bank (28%), the police or related organisations (14%), family members (10%), the platform where they experienced the scam attempt (10%), or the person or business that the scammer was purporting to be (9%).