Britons conned out of £100million every day by fraudsters

Fraudsters conned people out of more than £10million every single day last year – with victims losing an average £11,411. Some lost hundreds of thousands in a single sting, researchers found. In all, £333million was stolen each month.

And nearly £64million was taken in online shopping scams in the run-up to Christmas alone.

James Andrews, of money.co.uk, warned: “These aren’t cheeky Del Boy characters selling knock-off alarm clocks.

“They’re cold-hearted criminals using people’s fear to inveigle their way into bank accounts and make off with their life savings.”

One in four incidents were linked to banking fraud, which cost victims £1billion. Some £832million of this involved criminals stealing bank details and splurging the money or tricking victims into transferring their life savings.

Online dating cons were worth almost £100million, devastating just under 9,000 people.

There were 67,300 reported web shopping fraud cases, with £103million of losses rung up. The figures came from Action Fraud, to which victims report cases.

Broken down over the year, there were 90,490 crimes lodged with them between January and March, with losses totalling £610.3million. In the following three months, 88,199 incidents cost £1.1billion.

Between July and September, this figure soared to £1.6billion involving 87,048 cases.

The number of crimes slipped by 4,000 in the final three months of 2022 but there was still more than £917million lost.

James added: “Cyber crimes cost Brits more than £4billion last year, with losses rising yet again. This is a reminder for us to protect our data and be more vigilant when making purchases online. Fraud hurt more in 2022 – with each crime stealing an incredible £11,411 from innocent Brits on average.”

A government spokesman said: “We are absolutely committed to cracking down on fraud and economic crime, spending an additional £400million over the next
three years to bolster law enforcement’s response and develop our fraud strategy.

“Our world-leading Online Safety Bill will also place a duty on big-tech firms to tackle a wide range of online fraud, including romance scams and fraudulent ads, to make sure the UK is the safest place to be online.”