The new estimate and comprehensive data breakdown, say officials, is testament to improved methodologies and cooperation across government and industry. It also shows the real impact fraud has on individuals, businesses and government.
Breaking down the figures reveals that £21 billion of fraud a year is hitting the public sector, whilst £12 billion is causing severe problems for the private sector in the UK.
Interestingly, individuals are being hit to the tune of £4 billion a year, with charities also being hit by £1.3 billion in annual fraud.
The size of the public sector estimate is, says the NFA, in part down to diligence in reporting fraud loss data, combined with more comprehensive measurement techniques than other sectors.
The NFA adds that a better understanding of fraud in the public sector has led to the Cabinet Office setting up a cross-government counter-fraud taskforce that is overseeing a number of pilots to develop and establish counter fraud techniques.
Individual citizens' losses equated to 10% of the overall fraud figure (£4 billion), covering loss from mass-marketing fraud such as share sale, lottery and advanced fee frauds, as well as newer frauds such as online ticketing and rental fraud.
This additional information, says the NFA, along with data included from Action Fraud – the national fraud reporting centre run by the authority – widened the scope of last year's figure (£3.5 billion) to produce an increased figure within this AFI.
Dr Bernard Herdan, the NFA's chief executive, said that victims of fraud are found in all sections of society.
"Whether it is the public, private and charity sectors or as individual citizens, it is vital we join together to take action to stem the rising tide of fraud. The Annual Fraud Indicator is our blueprint. It enables us to gain a perspective and judge the scale of the problem and target our actions accordingly", he said.
Tackling fraud, says Herdan, will not solely be achieved through more investigation, prosecution and punishment of fraudsters.
"The NFA is working with its partners to promote greater fraud awareness and self-protection, encourage organisations to adopt fraud proof systems, enable fraud reporting and facilitate better sharing of intelligence on fraudsters", he explained.
"We want to develop a stronger counter fraud culture, which helps to disrupt fraudulent activity across the UK and globally", he added.
Commenting on the report, Nick Ogden, CEO of biometrics specialist Voice Commerce, said that if the total cost is broken down, every Brit would be £765.00 worse off.
"That is a fair bit of money in today's economic climate", he said, adding that, at a time when identity theft and data security climb ever higher on the agenda and the world is becoming ever more mobile, we are increasingly in need of an efficient way to identify ourselves and sign for things.
Ogden, who was the founder of WorldPay, one of the first online payment services and developer of some innovative anti-fraud systems on the internet in its early days, went on to say that voice biometrics may be the answer to the fraud problem.
Voice biometrics, he explained, addresses this problem because it verifies who the person is, rather than what they know, as is the case with methods such as Chip and PIN.
"With this in mind, the payments industry needs to adopt a federated response towards fraud and look to introduce a regulated mobile identity database. Only through these measures can we truly and effectively clamp down on financial crime", he said.