Fraud and computer misuse offences have increased substantially over the last two years; while many other types of crime have decreased. That’s according to the UK official ONS (Office for National Statistics), quoting its telephone-operated Crime Survey for England and Wales. It says fraud offences increased by 25 per cent (to 4.5 million offences) compared with the year ending March 2020, driven by large increases in “advance fee fraud” and “consumer and retail fraud”.
Computer misuse increased by 89pc (to 1.6 million offences) compared with the year ending March 2020, driven by a large increase in unauthorised access to personal information (hacking) offences.
A majority, 61pc of fraud incidents were cyber-related, an increase from 53pc in the year ending March 2020, that is, pre-covid. The ONS suggests this was because of a rise in cyber-related fraud and may be related to behavioural changes during the coronavirus pandemic and increased online activity.
Action Fraud (the police’s public-facing national fraud and cybercrime reporting centre) reported an 11pc decrease in fraud offences (to 354,758 offences) compared with the year ending March 2021, when offences were at record levels (398,022 offences, a record).
Who are the victims
Unlike many other types of crime, fraud and computer misuse, by their nature, are often committed anonymously, with the offender often not having a specific target in mind. As such, there tends to be considerably less variation in victimisation rates across demographic groups than with other crime types, the ONS says. Adults with a disability were more likely to be a victim of fraud than those without a disability; and adults aged 75 and over were less likely to be a victim of fraud than all other age groups. Social renters were more likely to be a victim of fraud than owner occupiers (7.5%) but were less likely to be victims of computer misuse than private renters.
For the full stats visit the ONS website.
Comment
Lawrence Perret-Hall, Director of cyber and incident response firm CYFOR Secure, said: “Smishing and phishing scams are constantly evolving. Take the housing industry as an interesting example: Friday is the most popular day to complete a house purchase, with large sums of money transferred between solicitors and their clients.
“Sophisticated phishing emails targeted at the right time, at the right individuals, are hard to spot and can end in disaster when money is accidentally transferred to a criminal rather than a solicitor. Or in the current cost of living crisis, we’re seeing smishing scams impersonating government discounted energy bill schemes. These cybercriminals and scammers are hoping to play on the vulnerability of individuals in an already stressful, financially challenging time.”
See also the firm’s blog: https://cyforsecure.co.uk/blog/.
