The UK Financial Services Authority says that its statistics show that boiler room fraudsters have ramped up their efforts, but that they are having less success.

On Tuesday, the FSA published statistics that it says show there were more reports of this sort of share fraud activity in 2011, but that fewer people lost money. The regulator reports that in 2011 it saw a 19% increase in enquiries about possible boiler room frauds. However, it also found that despite the increase in enquiries there was a 7% drop in 2011 in the number of people who invested in boiler room schemes.

“It is encouraging that the number of people who actually parted with their money has dropped. This suggests that our warnings about unauthorized firms are getting through and people are better prepared when they are called out of the blue. So far, the figures for the early part of 2012 show this trend continuing – but it is too early to draw any firm conclusions just yet,” said Jonathan Phelan, the FSA’s head of unauthorised business.

“A seven per cent drop in the number of investors might seem small, but in this case it represents 61 people. Our research shows that the average investor loses around £20,000, so it is possible that around a million pounds in consumer losses may have been prevented,” he suggested.

The FSA also says its numbers show that boiler room fraudsters are increasingly cloning legitimate firms to appear more credible, the FSA says, noting that in 2011, there were 449 reports made about cloned firms, which is almost triple the number of reports in the previous year.

“We will continue to fight all forms of unauthorised business but the strongest weapon against scams remains common sense and a little bit of homework: check who you are dealing with and never forget that if it sounds too good to be true – it probably is,” added Phelan.