<p>Fraud, particularly in its digital manifestations, ranks among the most prevalent crimes worldwide, causing significant financial, emotional, and reputational harm to both individuals and businesses. With the rising threat of digital crimes, crime prevention stakeholders increasingly turn to social media to engage the public. These efforts aim to build community trust and enhance the effectiveness of responses to (cyber) crime. However, research focusing on the specific use of these platforms for fraud and cybercrime prevention and public interaction remains scant. This study seeks to assess ‘what works’ in terms of institutional social media outreach in fraud prevention across the UK and how to improve it. It aims to evaluate how law enforcement and other institutions respond to fraud through their social media posts, how the public engages with these posts and the informativeness of the public’s posts regarding evolving offender tactics in fraud and its digital forms. The study employs a mixed-method approach, incorporating both qualitative and quantitative analyses of social media posts. In this case, a large corpus of fraud-related posts from X (formerly Twitter). Findings reveal that posts from the public often provide valuable insights into current offender methods, aiding LEAs in refining strategies and tailoring social media content to better combat fraud and its digital forms. Moreover, the study identifies specific content characteristics that may influence the popularity and dissemination of fraud prevention posts, thereby assisting in increasing their reach and impact. However, the analysis also reveals a plethora of fraud/cybercrime reporting options presented by UK stakeholders, potentially confusing among the public and signalling a lack of a streamlined institutional response. Overall, this study makes a significant contribution to the sparse evidence base on institutional social media outreach aimed at mitigating fraud and cybercrime and outlines directions for future research.</p>