TLDR Around eight million deepfakes were shared in the UK last year, nearly four times the 2023 figure Gambling sector fraud rose 73% between 2022 and 2024, with deepfakes used to bypass identity checks UK law enforcement was found “inadequately equipped” to handle AI-fuelled fraud in a 2025 report Meta’s own data showed roughly $16 billion in 2024 revenue came from ads on scams and banned goods New UK legislation to regulate deepfakes under the Online Safety Act is underway but key powers on scam ads are delayed until at least 2027
The UK is facing a rapid rise in AI-generated deepfake scams, and the country’s regulatory framework is struggling to respond. A growing body of evidence shows that synthetic media fraud has reached an industrial scale, hitting the online gambling industry especially hard.
Around eight million deepfakes were shared in the UK last year. That figure is nearly four times the number recorded in 2023, according to the Home Office’s Accelerated Capability Environment.
A 2026 report from the AI Incident Database described this type of fraud as having gone “industrial.” Fred Heiding, a researcher at Harvard University studying AI-fuelled scams, warned that “the worst is yet to come.”
The online gambling sector has been one of the hardest hit. Industry intelligence firm Gambling IQ found that sector fraud surged 73% between 2022 and 2024.
Deepfakes have been used to get around Know Your Customer checks and to carry out mass bonus abuse on gambling platforms. The technology allows scammers to impersonate real people with convincing voice cloning and video.
Law Enforcement Falls Behind
A 2025 report by the Alan Turing Institute found that UK law enforcement is “inadequately equipped to deal with AI-fuelled fraud.” The report was authored by Joe Burton, Professor of Security and Protection