Santander has issued a warning after a sharp rise in online shopping scams, with losses jumping by 75% over the festive period as criminals prey on stressed shoppers.
The high street bank said it recorded nearly 450 purchase scams in the two weeks before Christmas 2024, with fraudsters tempting victims with fake deals and goods that never existed.
Over Christmas Eve, Christmas Day and Boxing Day 2024, customers reported losses that were 75% higher than in 2023, and it fears a similar rise this year.
Santander estimates that 3,207 parcels failed to appear under Christmas trees across the UK last year as a result of purchase scams hitting its customers alone. Many of these were linked to bogus adverts on social media offering steep discounts on popular gifts.
In total, £30,722 was reported stolen from its customers during the three-day Christmas period in 2024, up from £17,552 the year before. If the same rate of increase is repeated in 2025, the bank warns that losses could climb to more than £50,000 over the Christmas holiday window alone.
Chris Ainsley, Head of Fraud Risk Management at Santander UK, said shoppers are especially vulnerable in the final days before Christmas.
“In the days before Christmas, shoppers are at their most vulnerable. As we approach the last shopping weekend, people are stressed, in a rush and desperate for gifts to arrive on time, and scammers know it,” he said.
“Hundreds of customers paid for items that simply never existed, and by the time they realised, it was too late to replace them. As we head into the busiest shopping period of the year, we want people to pause, double-check the seller, and be cautious of deals that look too good to be true.”
Experts say the 75% surge highlights how fraud has become more sophisticated, fuelled by artificial intelligence.
Colette Mason, Author and AI Consultant at London-based Clever Clogs AI, warned that scams now look almost identical to legitimate retailers.
She said: “Santander’s warning is spot on, but people need to understand the full threat of AI. We’re not talking about dodgy emails with typos anymore.
“We’re talking about fully cloned sites that pass every credibility check, personalised emails that sound exactly like your favourite retailer, and fake product pages that mirror legitimate ones pixel-perfect.
“The festive season has always been a scammer’s paradise, but AI’s turned it into an industrial operation.”
She told Newspage: “One practical tip that actually works? Don’t click email links ever. Type the website URL manually.”
Rohit Parmar-Mistry, Founder of Burton-on-Trent-based Pattrn Data, said the scale of the increase shows current protections are failing.
“Santander is right to raise the alarm, but telling people to ‘be careful’ while scammers run wild on social media is like putting a plaster on a gaping wound,” he said.
“Until regulation forces platforms to clean up, be your own firewall.”
Patricia McGirr, Founder of Burnley-based Repossession Rescue Network, said the human cost behind the figures is often ignored.
“These aren’t careless shoppers, they’re hardworking families desperately trying to do right by their kids,” she said.
“The real tragedy isn’t just the stolen money… it’s the shame, the guilt, and the stress of trying to explain to your children why Christmas didn’t arrive.”
She added that warnings must be matched by tougher action to curb a problem that is growing at an alarming rate year after year.
