Author: Becky Holmes
ISBN No: 978-1-68589-243-2 paperback
Review date: 27/09/2026
No of pages: 141
Publisher: Melville House UK
Publisher URL:
https://mhpbooks.com/books/the-future-of-fraud
Year of publication: 21/04/2026
Brief:
price
£16.99 $
Fraud is on the increase, says the author of a further book on the crime; and no matter how clever you think you are, a scam out there has your name on it.
Becky Holmes wrote a book about romance fraud, the engagingly titled Keanu Reeves is not in love with you, and now has written The Future of Fraud. Intriguingly, while she delves into tech โ online gaming, cryptocurrency, social media โ she is alive to the truth that thereโs nothing new under the sun. The criminal tools may be new, the psychological tricks of the fraudsters are age-old. Scam or fraud? She uses either word. Iโd suggest the two words are different for good reason โ which fraud prevention professional in a bank would call themselves part of a โcounter-scam communityโ?
She begins with a breezy zip through the last 2000 years of western history, and shows how fraud has always been with us (scientist Sir Isaac Newton was among victims of the British financial crash, the โSouth Sea Bubbleโ, which she describes as โa perfect storm of investment mania and fraudโ, โessentially a Ponzi schemeโ). She goes on to the actual Charles Ponziโs scheme, involving postage stamps (younger readers may need those explaining to them), and the โlegendary conman Frank Abagnaleโ, whose story was made into a film starring Leonardo DiCaprio. Things the author doesnโt bring out are why people as bright as Newton should lose money to frauds โ because of such unchanging human emotions as greed; and our fascination with crime – who does not relish diddling some more powerful or rich institution such as their employer out of money, even if only by โfiddlingโ their expenses?
The book is up to date enough to mention the second version of the UK policeโs Action Fraud national reporting line, Report Fraud; like seemingly everyone else, the author doesnโt have a good word to say for it. She makes plain the sheer scale and width of the crime; frauds about insurance cover, when youโre searching for romance on a dating website, seeking investment advice or a job; itโs โheavily industrialisedโ. The future she paints is bleak. Tech is neutral; large language models can serve as an โinstruction manual for any kind of scamโ. The prospect is of a world where we cannot tell fake apart from reality; the author fears โa huge rise in emotionally exploitative frauds using real-time video manipulationโ, someone pleading to you for money, looking like the person they are claiming to be (your child, a celebrity asking for a donation to charity?).
What to do
How to minimise (that is to say, fraud cannot be stamped out) the impact of fraud? The author offers several possibilities. Education; why isnโt โfraud literacyโ on the school curriculum, she asks. She has particularly interesting things to say about language โ we donโt say someone falls for a street robber, so why say they fall for a scam? You shouldnโt say someone loses money to a fraud โ the money is taken. And the author doesnโt like the phrase โif itโs too good to be true, it isโ, certainly in terms of romance fraud โ if a skilled, manipulative person convinces someone online to part with money, so convincing that the fraudster is male but pretending to be a young female, whoโs equipped to navigate this ever more complicated reality? She also points to some pieces of tech that may combat fraud (or at least slow its spread?): biometric authentication, digital ID (โit seems likely eventuallyโ), behavioural analytics, and the โfree AI-powered toolโ Ask Silver. However, she offers no prospect from her contacts in law enforcement that the authorities can get any more of a grip on the crime. If, as some suggest, a rule for mandatory reporting of all fraud came into force, the data would overwhelm police IT. She notes that the Labour Government on taking office in 2024 appointed a Home Office minister (in the unelected House of Lords) David Hanson, for fraud. She lists his priorities โfor the next few yearsโ; isnโt more urgency in order? Holmes is more forthright in her opinion about social media firms; most โcouldnโt care less about the acts of fraud โฆ. on their watchโ.
If I have a quibble itโs about the authorโs breezy style, which does help the reader to engage with her (she shares that she finds the Roman Empireโs army uniform the sexiest), but does grate sometimes. When she comes to cyberflashing she adds that itโs โdick pics to you and meโ; isnโt that rather belittling the experience of someone sent such images?! She admits late on that she avoided covering the metaverse as sheโs middle aged and frightened of it โ an odd admission for someone setting themselves up as an authority on the future โ when surely regulating and surviving inside the metaverse will be the greatest challenge for the next few, maybe many, generations. She concludes by calling for a โcultural overhaulโ; internet police, public education campaigns, longer jail sentences for fraudsters (but whatโs the point if so very few fraudsters are ever collared?) and better aftercare for those who have been defrauded. She details the possible breakdown in trust between people and any institution (if youโre sent an email that youโve got a parking fine, is it genuine? If you get a phone call from someone saying theyโre the police, are they?). The risk above all is not of financial loss, but an endless, wearying โcrisis of trustโ.
