Get rich quick investment scams targeting cash-strapped people in the UK are on the rise, as new data reveals the average amount of money lost per victim of investment fraud has more than doubled in a year to £13,892.

With the unrelenting strain of the cost-of-living crisis continuing to squeeze household finances, a quarter (24%) of people indicate that they would be willing to take more risks with their finances in order to make money. Those aged between 34-44 saw the biggest increase in scams, rising by 46%.

More than six in ten (61%) would agree to an investment promising to double their money in a year, with 8% agreeing to invest straight away without doing any of their own research to gauge the credibility of the opportunity.

Concerningly, almost a fifth of people (16%) say they would be willing to borrow money to invest, with over a third (38%) of people who would borrow money doing so from friends and family. The areas that are most likely to garner the interest of people looking to invest are property (35%), stocks and shares (34%), investment ISAs (28%), gold (24%), bonds and gilts (20%) and cryptocurrency (17%).

Research by Nationwide Building Society indicates a hotspot for scams in the South-East, with Kent (6%), London (6%) and Essex (5%) regions all ranking the highest for scams in their data, closely followed by the West Midlands (5%), Middlesex (4%), Lancashire (4%) and Hampshire (3%).

Someone who has experienced the trauma of financial fraud is much-loved soap star Adam Rickitt, who almost lost £50,000 of his life savings due to a scammer pretending to be his bank. The experience impacted both him and his family.