Official data shows that fraud increased by 21%, with a rise in dating scams and social media accounts being hacked, over the last three years. Moreover, fraud relating to online shopping and auctions was among the most common with 4,599 incidents in total, up 7.5%, to 1,635 cases in 2017.
And while Action Fraud has compiled information on 55 different types of fraud, top of its list were unclassified cases. Dating scams, charity fraud and hacking people’s social media accounts have increased dramatically in the last three years, according to the data.
Action Fraud, the UKs fraud and cyber-crime reporting centre which collates data on behalf of all police forces, said cases cost victims GBP 17.1 million in Wales between October 2017 and March 2018 alone.
Nevertheless, as fraud has increased in the force’s area by 26.8% to 4,735 crimes in 2017, South Wales Police said it was investing in new “financial abuse safeguarding officers” to identify vulnerable people and crimes.
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