Fraud and cyber-crime up by 3%

This week the Crime Survey for England and Wales revealed that there were an estimated 3.6 million cases of fraud and two million computer misuse offences in 12 months in its annual report.  This is a 3% increase from the previous year’s figures. The figures covered the year to September. 

Fraud and cybercrime are the volume crimes of the twenty-first century; and today’s figures are further evidence of this. These crimes have a devastating effect on individuals and businesses.

Fighting fraud can feel like an arms race – fraudsters are sophisticated innovators who constantly adapt their methods. So we welcome the focus from Government following the launch of the Joint Fraud Taskforce last year. Only with Government, law enforcement, industry and citizens working together will we be able to prevent fraud and reduce the impact of this destructive crime on our society.

The figures are an estimate and therefore do not necessarily show the full extent of fraud in the UK.  We know that there is still a gap between the estimate and the actual reported figures as not all fraud offences are reported to the police. Our members report around 800 to 1000 cases per day to the police. But this is just 360 organisations. We want to see government continuing to work with industry more widely and encourage individuals to report all fraud to Action Fraud so we can see the full picture and get a proper measure of all fraud in the UK.

We are pleased be to working with a whole range of partners through the Joint Fraud Taskforce which was launched last year by the then Home Secretary. This new collaborative approach aims to increase intelligence sharing, a unified response and greater awareness of the risk of fraud among consumers.

One way organisations across the private and public sectors can help is by supporting the Take Five Campaign. The main aim of the campaign is to educate and arm people across the UK with practical fraud prevention advice. We encourage everyone to get behind the campaign. 

We protect our homes, our cars and our belongings – now and in the future we must assert the same level of protection to keep ourselves safe from fraud and cybercrime.

You can view Cifas quarterly stats through an interactive regional map on our website.